The Darkness Within
by LuckyLadybug
Summary: CONCLUDED MAY 28th! The bikers have two disasters: the new Doom Reborn organization and a couple claiming to be Valon's parents. Then Alister is cut and poisoned by an Orichalcos stone, straining the bonds of their friendships.
1. Prologue: Falling Forever

**Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**The Darkness Within**

**By LuckyLadybug**

**Notes: The YGO characters aren't mine, the story (including the idea of the Doom Reborn organization) and the other characters are, and much friendship cuteness and such abounds!**

* * *

It was amazing how long one could fall. And yet, in reality, it wouldn't really take very much time. It was just that for those about to die in such a horrible way, it seemed to be both an endless drop and a quick, hopefully painless end.

He gazed up blankly at the sky as he descended, his glazed gray eyes yet filled with many conflicting emotions—sorrow, anger, relief, self-hatred. . . . It was over, the nightmare was over, but he was leaving so much chaos behind him. . . . His friends would be upset . . . no, they _were_ upset. . . . He could hear them calling to him, wanting desperately to help him but knowing they were helpless to do so.

His crimson bangs fluttered about in the breeze, partially obscuring his already-clouded vision. He knew he was falling unconscious from the force of the electrocuting blasts, but that was all the better. He wouldn't feel the impact. Though . . . how could it be more painful than what he had already gone through in his short life? He had seen the horrors of war . . . he had lost his family and everyone who had been important to him . . . and his heart had died. Only recently had he allowed himself to revive it and to care about others again. Before, he had been too afraid of the pain . . . of how much he would hurt if he grew to care for people and they then died. . . . And now, he was the one dying.

The stone's dark energies had taken possession of his mind when he had been cut by a jagged part of it. He had struggled so hard, fighting against the darkness . . . the anger . . . the hatred that still existed deep in his heart and which had been unleashed. He had gone insane, though all the while he had still been fighting, trying to break free. . . . And finally, during the life-and-death duel he had forced his friends into, he had succeeded. But it had been too late for him. He had surrendered the duel, knowing that he would die. But he would rather die himself than to allow his friends to perish.

"_I'm sorry. . . . This wasn't what I wanted. . . . I didn't want it to end this way."_

That was what he had told them right before he had been struck by the punishing electricity. He had seen the alarm in their eyes . . . the horror. . . . He hadn't even had a chance to scream in pain before he forcefully toppled off the edge.

_I hurt you both. . . ._ He knew he had. His friends had understood that the stone had poisoned him, but that didn't mean that his actions hadn't caused them pain. And now he wouldn't see them again. He would miss them, he knew. After finally opening his heart to their friendship, and even before, he had cared about them, though he didn't often speak of it in words. He showed that he cared by his actions.

He would miss Raphael and his steadfast loyalty. The older man hadn't given up on his friend throughout all of this agony. Raphael had always treated the other two like brothers and had believed that the darkness would be shattered. The blonde man seemed to be a strong, firm rock of determination, and serious. They had always gotten along quite well. Some thought that they were similar because of their quiet personalities, but really, they were different. While Raphael was more calm and collected, he also seemed more determined to focus on the present and the future. His dying friend had a tendancy to dwell on the past, he knew, and he sometimes could be a bit mentally unstable, though only if he was driven to it over a long period of time. He could take things very well, but eventually he would just snap. Then he was dangerous. Raphael wasn't like that, he didn't think. Though . . . if pushed, he could become very angry.

He would miss Valon as well. The boy seemed to have boundless energy. It made him dizzy at times, watching the Australian, and they could rarely get along since their personalities clashed so badly, but still . . . they were friends, in their own strange way. When he had fallen over the edge, Valon had run forward, trying to grab him and almost falling himself. Raphael had quickly pulled him back. He had seen that vaguely before his vision had clouded over. _Strange,_ he thought, _that you would risk your life for me . . . when you always claimed that you were only out for yourself. It seems you truly have changed. Though . . . we all have._

Just as the blanket of oblivion completely settled over him, he became aware of the flapping of large wings. _An angel?_ he mused to himself. He had never believed that angels literally had wings. Maybe his ears were just playing tricks on him. It was probably a bird of some kind. . . . As he continued to fall, he suddenly felt himself being received into firm, welcoming arms. He thought he could make out a female face in his failing vision. When he tried to think of who it could be, only one possibility came to his mind. "Mama?" he whispered, going limp.


	2. The Letters

**Chapter One**

**Several Weeks Earlier. . . .**

It had started out as a perfectly normal day at the bikers' home in the residential area of Domino City. Raphael had woken up first and had gone to make breakfast, followed closely by his adoring Ragdoll cat Liu. Soon after, Alister had gotten up as well, pondering silently over a nightmare he'd had involving the war he'd seen in his childhood. Running a hand through his bangs, he had slowly headed into the bathroom for a morning shower. Valon, who enjoyed sleeping in a lot of the time, was doing so again then, clutching the pillow tightly and mumbling random nonsense to himself.

When Alister came downstairs several minutes later, he found Liu pawing through the mail that was setting on the telephone table near the door. Idly he went over to look through it, not really expecting anything interesting. More often than not, the only mail they would receive would be bills and various bits of advertising and spam. There was rarely anyone who would send them personal letters, since all of their families were dead. Some of Raphael's family _was_ still alive, it was true, but they couldn't care less about their "wayward" relation, especially his cousin Hilda. She certainly wouldn't be sending him anything.

Carefully and gently the redhead pried the envelopes away from the curious Liu's paws. The cat meowed in protest, but Alister just sighed and shook his head, his still-damp, crimson locks plastered to his face and neck. Raphael had a habit of talking to the feline, but Alister didn't often do so, though he petted her and showed her a certain amount of affection. It wasn't that he didn't like cats, necessarily (he liked them better than some other animals), but being around them often made him sad because it reminded him of a kitten Miruko had loved and then had lost. And then of course Alister had lost Miruko. . . .

He narrowed his eyes, sorting through the mail and finding that it mostly was simply bills. But upon coming to the last two envelopes, he stopped and frowned in confusion. One looked official and had the name of a law firm printed on it. Alister couldn't imagine what the contents of that one would be. The only possible thing that came to his mind was that maybe someone was suing one of them or all of them collectively, perhaps for some damage they'd caused when they had been with Doom, but it seemed unlikely. It was true that Professor Hawkins' laboratory had been blown up, but Alister and his friends hadn't been involved with that. That had been the work of some of Dartz's random lackeys, but not of his three favored "Musketeers of Doom." Though, Alister supposed, if someone just wanted to sue someone who had been with the organization, he and the others would be easy prey. Most of Dartz's other workers had scattered to various parts of the planet. Alister was quite certain that he, Raphael, and Valon shared a closeness that most of the other Doom warriors had not had.

The second envelope had an ominous look to it that Alister wasn't pleased to note. It was addressed simply to "Doom's Warriors" and had their address written from cutout newspaper letters. There was no return address. Alister had a feeling that it was being sent from an enemy. Generally, when newspaper letters were used, the sender was not a friend.

A yawn from behind him caused the gray-eyed man to turn around. Valon was wandering down the stairs, still looking half-asleep and not seeming to notice or care that his fluffy brown hair was going wildly in all directions, even more so than usual. Alister raised an eyebrow at him. "Sometimes," he remarked, "I wonder if you ever brush your hair."

Valon grunted. "Sure, I do," he retorted in his thick Australian accent, "but I'm too hungry to bother right now." He glanced to the mail in Alister's hand. "Anything interesting?"

"Possibly." Alister set the bills down, keeping the other two items in his hand as he turned to the kitchen.

Raphael, overhearing the two of them (and praying dearly that they wouldn't start arguing already!), came to the doorway. "Breakfast is almost ready," he announced. "What's the mail?"

"This is from a law firm," Alister reported, holding out the one, "and this is from Heaven knows who." He predicted what Valon's response would be before the boy said it.

"Oh well, it can wait," the brunette said, brushing past Alister to go into the kitchen. "Let's eat first and figure it out later." His blue eyes lit up greedily when he saw the pan of scrambled eggs Raphael had made.

The blonde shook his head in amusement. "Eating might give us more energy to deal with it, incase there's problems," he mused with a sigh, though his curiosity had been piqued. It seemed as though they never had a shortage of problems. Sometimes he wondered if it would ever even begin to stop.

Alister grunted. "And there probably will be," he replied, setting the mail down and coming into the kitchen to eat as well. Liu quickly scampered after him.

* * *

After breakfast, the trio retired to the living room to pore over their mysterious letters. They decided to try the one from the law firm first, and Raphael took it up and opened it, extracting a single sheet of paper. His cerulean eyes narrowed in confusion at the contents. "What the. . . ." Briefly he scanned over the page, his expression darkening with each line. _What was this! How could this be? _

The other two leaned over. "What's it say?" Valon demanded impatiently.

Raphael growled. "This directly involves you," he replied, "and it doesn't look good." He gripped the paper tightly, not wanting to think about the possible consequences that could come from this. They were all just settled peaceably! Why did something like this have to come along now? It didn't make sense and it just seemed so odd and crooked. . . .

"Well, what is it?" Valon cried. "Am I going to jail or something?" The thought sent a panic throughout his body. He couldn't go back to prison! He couldn't! The guards had been so cruel there, and had been rough with him, and when he had tried to defend himself, they had thrown him into solitary confinement. He couldn't let that happen again. He hated small places with a passion. He wouldn't go back!

"Nothing like that," Raphael said. He took in Alister's silent expression of confusion before finally beginning to read.

From the law firm of Morris, Morris, and Baer—

Dear Sir, we understand that you are familiar with a young boy called "Valon," and indeed, that you've been taking care of him for some time. (Hereupon Valon cried indignantly that they most certainly had not!) This Valon was reportedly an orphan and a former convict in an Australian prison.

Recently we were approached by two people claiming that they had lost a son named Valon and that they are desperately attempting to locate him again. They only knew that he had been a prisoner before he was set free and turned over into the care of a mysterious man known only as Dartz, who owned a company called Paradius. We promised to do what we could to find their son, whereupon they left us with a picture of him at about age four, when he was lost under strange circumstances. We have enclosed a copy of this photograph for you to look at.

In our research, we found that you and a man named Alister Amelda Mackenzie also worked for this Paradius company. Therefore, we propose that your charge Valon is actually the Valon that Mr. and Mrs. Howard Paltridge of Sydney Australia are looking for. If this is so, his birth record shows that his present age would be seventeen, making him still a minor and meaning that his parents could likely get custody of him if they so desired it.

Here, Raphael stopped reading, mainly because Valon had suddenly snatched the paper from his hands and was staring at it so intently that if he had possessed heat rays in his eyes, he most likely would have burned it to smouldering ashes.

"It's all a pack of lies!" he yelled indignantly. "And what's this about a 'charge'? I'm not your charge! I'm not anybody's charge!"

Alister pushed himself up a bit more on the couch. "No, I don't think you are either," he said calmly. Valon was too much of a free spirit to be anyone's charge; what was more, Alister and Raphael treated him as an equal and not as one so much younger than they. Alister had always known that Valon was probably in his late teens, but he had never actually stopped to consider the possibility that perhaps he wasn't of legal age yet and therefore "needed" a guardian. The thought seemed foreign to him now. It was so much to take in all at once. . . . And weren't Valon's parents supposed to be dead? Alister had always thought so, from things that Valon had said before.

Raphael reached into the envelope, finding the copy of the photo and pulling it out. He frowned darkly at the image of the sweet-looking, naive, brunette child sitting on the front porch of a run-down home, grinning mischievously at the camera. Indeed, the boy did look like Valon, so much so that Raphael growled, wondering if it was possible that he and Alister were going to lose their young friend. And he didn't trust "Mr. and Mrs. Howard Paltridge," nor their law firm. Something just seemed overly suspicious about the whole thing. If they had lost their son so long ago, why hadn't they tried to get him back then?

Valon glowered at the letter, slamming it down on the end table. "Look, my parents didn't even care about me," he muttered, getting up and heading for the stairs. "They were both no-good crooks." He clenched his fists tightly. His friends were shocked, having rarely seen him this angry.

"I thought you were an orphan," Alister finally voiced. "That's what you told us." That conversation had occurred a while back, when they had all been discussing their families. Alister and Raphael had mentioned that theirs were all dead, but that they had been loving and kind people when they had been alive. Valon had simply responded that he didn't have any parents and then had briefly mentioned of the way he had constantly been shuttled to foster home after foster home, with no one really showing him genuine kindness until Mother Mary had came along.

"Well, that's 'cause I might as well have been!" Valon snapped, turning back to face Alister and Raphael as painful remembrances from his past crowded into his mind. "My parents _sold me._ Yeah, that's right—they sold me on the black market when it got too tough for them to keep raising me." Flickers of angry, hurt tears shone in his eyes at the memories. And Alister wondered why he'd adopted his policy of only caring for himself. Well, no one else ever had cared, so someone had to. "They were greedy pigs and all they cared about was themselves, so after that I always told myself I was an orphan. It was true, after all—I didn't have any real parents." With that he stormed upstairs, slamming the door behind him and leaving Alister and Raphael both stunned. Raphael tried to call him back, but he was ignored.

The blonde shook his head slowly in disbelief. "I can't imagine such treachery," he murmured, setting the picture down on top of the letter. "Look at him. He was just a child—young, naive, innocent. . . . And his parents would throw their child away for money?" He had grown to hate the world after he had lost his family, but not then nor even now could he comprehend such abominations as parents selling their own offspring, whom they should love more than life itself. _This world is going to Hell in a handbasket!_

Alister's gray eyes flashed with rage. "What would they even want with him now, if they truly are his parents?" He picked up the photograph, gazing at the sweet-faced boy. Valon was a good person, a truly good person who had started hiding his pain with his carefree grin and sometimes obnoxious ways. Alister had only recently even begun to see that Valon actually was often sad and lonely. He imagined that was why the brunette had taken up an acquaintance with the woman Vivalene, when she had been pretending to be someone kind and caring.

"I don't know," Raphael growled, "but it can't be good." He looked over the letter again. "And it's possible that they aren't even his parents anyway, though I can't imagine who they'd be if they aren't." But he was furious. Whoever they were, he highly doubted their sincerity. He knew that he would do everything he could to keep them from ever getting Valon back. They had chosen to get rid of him in the past; now Valon had a real home with people he cared about and who cared about him. Raphael wasn't about to let a couple of cruel con artists take that away.

"You don't suppose that maybe this other letter has something to do with it, do you?" Alister picked up the second envelope, studying it thoughtfully. It could be some sort of warning from the parents, he supposed, informing them that they would get Valon back no matter what. He wouldn't be surprised.

"It might," Raphael said in irritation. "We should open it and find out." And then, he thought, he should go up and try to talk to Valon. It must be horrible for the boy, to have his past thrown in his face like this again, when he thought he was rid of it all and that he could put it behind him.

Carefully Alister took his pocket knife and slit the side open, then reached in and pulled out the single sheet of paper inside. When he read what was written on it (also in newspaper letters), however, he realized that this was not the same problem, but a much different one—though just as dangerous, or more so. He looked to the older man darkly. "Raphael. . . ." He held out the paper, and Raphael took it, his eyes widening as he read what was on it.

The great Leviathan will rise again, and the three of you will help to make it come to pass. We will finish what Dartz started.

—Doom Reborn


	3. The Stones

**Note: Yes, Valon's past with his parents is my own concept, since we learn nothing about them from the anime. XD; Ah, there's so many interesting things about the bikers that we don't know. The anime didn't tell us near enough. Thank goodness for fanfictions!  
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* * *

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**Chapter Two**

Raphael's hand actually shook as he read over the warning a second time. Someone had started up the Doom organization again? But how could that be? And why would anyone actually do it? There were only a handful of people who even knew what Doom truly was, and most of them had been Dartz's minions and Yugi Muto's gang. But why would any of them be doing this now? Well, he knew that Yugi and his friends wouldn't. But he couldn't understand why even anyone from Doom would want to. Dartz had betrayed them all! He hadn't cared about any of their lives. All along he had planned to sacrifice their souls to Leviathan when the time was right. That was why Alister's defeat had meant nothing to him, when he had told Raphael of it.

"We don't need this right now," he snarled at last, feeling like crumpling the paper within his strong hands. "Isn't this problem with poor Valon enough to worry about for now?"

"Apparently they don't think so," Alister remarked sarcastically, though he knew it was not likely that this Doom Reborn would even know of their other problem. He took the paper back from Raphael, studying it for any possible clues—to no avail.

Raphael stood up, heading for the stairs himself. "I'm going to go check on Valon," he announced.

Alister nodded. "I'm going to do research on the law firm," he decided, going over to the computer that was positioned to the side of the staircase. Valon was generally the one who used it—mainly for various games—but every now and then Alister or Raphael would want it for some sort of information, so they kept it downstairs in the living room instead of in Valon's room. "They could be as shady as the people who hired them."

Raphael grunted. "And with our luck, they probably are."

* * *

Valon threw himself onto his bed, blasting a Linkin Park song loudly on his stereo. He couldn't help it—he hated his parents. When he had just been the small child that they had sold to a shady agency that would supposedly find a home for him (and had not), he had not understood at all. He only remembered how he had run about the house that morning, cheerful and hyper, and then had been taken and viciously beaten by his father. His mother had been right there, but instead of trying to stop it, she only encouraged it. Neither of them had really liked him, though originally his father had tried to groom him to take his position someday as whatever kind of criminal he himself was. _I guess he decided I wasn't good enough for that. Or maybe he just hated that I was always so happy. . . ._

He hugged a pillow, staring blankly at the wall. _When they just took me to that place, I think I thought it was 'cause of something I'd done. . . . I was always kinda naive like that when I was a kid. . . . I thought I'd been bad and so I deserved what I got. . . . It was only when I got older that I realized I just had a couple of deadbeat parents. But . . . I guess I still kinda thought that they gave up on me because of what I am. I've always been different from everybody else I met. That's why I'm a loner._

He listened vaguely to the words as the song Figure .09 began. Why would his parents come back now? He did not have anything they could want now, unless they just wanted to ruin his life by taking him away from the only real family he had. _And,_ he smirked wryly, _it wouldn't really be a shock if they did want to. They couldn't want me to have any bit of happiness._

A knock on his door startled him into a realization of his current surroundings. He blinked and looked over. "What?" he called.

Raphael, who had been trying to get Valon's attention for the last several minutes (and had been unsuccessful due to Chester's screaming), sighed and shook his head. "It's me," he yelled back, wishing that Valon would not play his rock music so loud.

Valon reached over, pausing the CD. "Oh. Okay," he answered in what probably sounded like a monotone. He rolled onto his back as Raphael opened the door and came in. "What do you want?"

Raphael came and sat down on the edge of the bed, looking at the younger man sadly. He realized now that he was not quite sure how to even approach a subject that was so tender. He had no idea what it would be like to have a family that so blatantly did not care. At last he reached out, laying a hand gently on Valon's shoulder. "I'm sorry your parents were such a mess," he said gruffly. Though he often seemed cold and frank, he was the one both of the younger bikers went to for comfort when they felt they needed it. Raphael was a good listener and a compassionate elder brother figure.

Valon shrugged now, propping himself up on one elbow. "Yeah, well . . . that's just the way it goes," he replied, "'specially for me. No one really ever cared about me." He grinned weakly. "Then Mother Mary died. . . . I guess I just finally felt like I wasn't worth anyone's caring. I mean . . . I figured that if there was a God, He sure must've not given a darn what happened to me." He heaved a deep sigh and Raphael saw the flickers of sadness in his blue eyes.

"What do you think now?" Raphael asked after a brief lapse of silence.

Valon sat up. "I think that, now that I finally have somewhere to be, someone's gonna try to take it from me again," he answered bitterly, narrowing his eyes. "I mean . . . that's the way it's always been with me." He leaned against Raphael with another sad sigh. "I used to be kinda jealous of you and Alister, I guess," he admitted then. "The both of you had loving families—good parents and lovable brothers and sisters. . . . I couldn't even imagine what that'd be like. It sounded like a fairy tale to me."

Raphael's heart went out to the young Australian. "Yeah," he said finally, "I guess it would." He waited for a moment before speaking once more. "You know it isn't likely that they'll get custody of you again," he announced then. "They'd have to go through a lot of red tape first."

Valon looked up at him. "Oh, I'm sure they've come prepared with their crooked lawyers and all that," he snorted. "If they really want me for some reason, they'll find a way to get me. Heck, they'd dig up dirt on you and Alister if they thought it'd help them, or they'd even make something up. I don't think there's anything they wouldn't do!" The memories were vague in his mind, since he had been so extremely young at the time, but he recalled how various shady characters had come around to their house all the time. He had not liked them and once had threatened to beat one of them up when he had not liked whatever had been being discussed at the time. That certainly had not endeared him to his father any. After the person had gone, he had been beaten again for his remarks.

"There's a fatal flaw with people like that," Raphael told him, breaking into his thoughts. "They expect their enemies to be as cheap and dishonest as they themselves are." He paused, another thought entering his mind. "You don't happen to know what your surname actually is, do you?" He had the feeling that Valon did not. Throughout all the time he had known the boy, he had never heard Valon give a last name for himself. He had probably been abandoned at such a young age that he did not remember what his surname was.

Valon shrugged helplessly. "Nope," he said, "and I dunno my real age, either. I'll tell you this, though—those people, if they are my 'parents,' are probably not even using their real names. We were always running from place to place because the cops were after them. Once we'd get settled in the next place, they'd change their names. They didn't ever change mine because I guess they figured I was too young to understand it and well, they wanted me to come whenever they called for me." He leaned forward, staring at the floor.

"Great," Raphael muttered pessimistically. _This is just sounding better and better._

Suddenly remembering something, Valon looked up at him again. "Hey, what was that other letter about?" he asked. "Hate mail from dear ol' Mum and Dad?"

Raphael shook his head, amazed at Valon's ability to joke when he was obviously upset. He wondered how often that had been the case in the past. "Actually," he replied, "it was hate mail from a new organization called Doom Reborn." He watched for Valon's reaction.

The boy started, almost falling off the bed. "WHAT!" he gasped, his cerulean eyes widening to twice their usual size. "What kinda idiot would wanna start up Doom again! Dartz almost destroyed the whole world!" _And we would've helped him. . . ._ He still was not sure why he had even joined Doom in the first place. He had given various answers over the years—because he had nowhere else to go, because it was the only way to get out of prison, because he was just plain bored. . . . It was probably all true, actually. He had been quite lost and without direction for most of his life. When Dartz had offered him a way out, he had accepted, perhaps hoping that it would be interesting—and even perhaps hoping, in some part of his mind, that they actually would be able to purify the world. After all, it certainly needed purifying.

Raphael shook his head. "I don't understand it either," he growled. "I guess it could be some of Dartz's other former warriors. Not having gone through what we did, maybe they still believe that Dartz's plan was genius and that now they have to carry it out since Dartz is gone." If that was true, then he was not angry at them—he only pitied them. They would not know what they were getting into. They would not realize that they would not be able to cleanse the world of its wickedness and that instead they would be destroying everything. Leviathan had lied to Dartz and it was probably lying to whoever was reopening the Doom organization.

Valon was silent for a moment, then suddenly gave a dry laugh. "Well, this looks fun," he commented. "Not only are my 'parents' probably gonna show up, but we havta deal with Doom, Version Two!" He blinked at Raphael curiously. "What'd they want with us, anyway?"

"They informed us that we're going to help them revive the Leviathan," Raphael grunted. _Over my dead body. I'll never help with that again!_

"Oh yeah? Like that'd ever happen." Valon fell back against the soft pillows. "I think we've gotten more sense by now. Reviving some old dragon that'll end the world isn't how I wanna get my kicks."

"I know none of us would ever willingly help them," Raphael said slowly, "but I don't think they're gonna take no for an answer." He ran a hand through his cropped hair. He had the very bad feeling that they were in for a lot of trouble over the next few days.

* * *

Alister narrowed his gray eyes at the computer screen. Predictably, he could find nothing out about the law firm, no matter how many different searches he tried on various search engines. He leaned back in the chair, rubbing his forehead and wondering what to do next. The Internet was obviously not going to be of help here. 

This was such a strange thing to have come out of the blue. What could these people really want with Valon? They certainly would not be missing him and wanting him back because they had decided they loved him. But it was not as if Valon was a wealthy boy either, so they could not be wanting him to try to get money from him. He pulled on his bottom lip, wondering if it was possible that they wanted to get him so that they could sell him again, perhaps even to some of their other enemies. The thought made him cringe in disgust. How did such abominable people even become parents in the first place? And while they were raising (or even abandoning) children they did not want, other people were simply starved for children and could not have them, for one reason or another.

Alister came to attention when he discovered that the browser had automatically reset itself to the home page, since there had been no activity for the required waiting time. He sighed, glancing over the local news stories, and then raised a confused eyebrow at one of the articles' titles.

_**Unknown Businessman Purchases Paradius Lot.**_

Frowning, the redhead grabbed the mouse and clicked on it. The story was short and to the point, since not even the reporter seemed to know very much about what she was writing about.

Earlier this week, in the heart of San Francisco California, the vacated and decrepit lot belonging to the once towering Paradius building was turned over into new hands. Since the skyscraper collapsed for unknown reasons a year or more ago, the property has remained lifeless, with no one willing to buy it or even set foot on it. Apparently there have been stories in the area that it is haunted by supernatural beings and that is why the building collapsed. But, apparitions or not, the tales didn't scare away this tycoon, who has refused to reveal his name. He claims to have been interested in the property for quite some time, but that only recently was he able to make a deal that satisfied the city government. When asked what he plans to do with the space, he said only to expect the Paradius building to soon be plastered against the San Francisco skyline once again.

Alister's eyes flickered with annoyance. Obviously this must tie in with Doom Reborn. They wanted to build up Paradius again to use it as a front for Doom, the way Dartz had. But who could possibly be responsible? The fact that no name had been given made Alister both confused and suspicious. Did the government want it kept a secret or was it a purely personal decision of the buyer? If it was the latter, was it because he wanted to remain a mystery to certain people who might see the article, mainly the three of them?

He pushed his chair back and stood up, after printing the article out and shutting the computer down. This was so much to be bombarded with all at once. He knew Raphael was still upstairs with Valon, so he decided that he would take a walk and attempt to sort it all out in his mind. He doubted that he would find a solution, however.

* * *

Alister's walk took him all over the city. He passed by the Turtle Game Shop, KaibaCorp, and the local branch of Industrial Illusions. He sighed inwardly at the many memories such places invoked, most of which involved Doom. His life, as well as Valon's and Raphael's, had been deeply entwined with Doom for so many years—and for him, ever since he had been a young boy of thirteen. He shuddered. Dartz had liked to get his warriors when they were very young and would, he hoped, be more perceptible to his suggestions. And even though Alister had not trusted Dartz, he had believed in the man's misguided ideals. _I was so misled, just as he was. . . ._ He still felt guilt when he thought of how the Orichalcos had manipulated him, using his passion and hatred and twisting it to his own downfall. 

He looked up, drawn out of his thoughts when he saw where he had subconsciously walked—to the group home where he often volunteered his services. He stopped, gazing at the dreary-looking building as he slightly lowered his sunglasses (which he was wearing even though the sky was overcast). There were so many children in there, many of them orphans. Some of them, however, had been abandoned, just as Valon had been. It made Alister very angry that some people considered a child's life of no value, when they meant everything to him. If people were not so heartless, he thought to himself, maybe tyrants would not rise up and wars would not have to be started.

"Alister!"

Abruptly the slender redhead was startled by two arms going around his waist from behind. He heard a happy giggle and, as he looked over his shoulder, he recognized the child Jamie, who had taken a particular liking to him (though all of the children adored him). He allowed himself to smile softly at the boy as Jamie came around to stand by his side. "Hello," he said, reaching up to remove his shades completely. "How are you doing, Jamie?" He put an arm around the child, feeling himself relax.

Jamie grinned. "Just great!" he chirped. "Did you come to see us today? It's not Tuesday or Friday." His freckles stood out on his cheeks, especially when he was happy and smiling. He hugged Alister again, happy to have his friend here. Alister treated all of the children very well and they all looked up to him as an elder brother figure. One of the workers there had even compared Alister's effect on children to the Pied Piper.

Alister ruffled Jamie's sandy hair. "Well," he replied, "I was taking a walk and I ended up here, so it looks like I will be visiting for a while." And that was fine with him. Perhaps getting away from the problems he and the others were going to have to deal with would give him a clearer idea of what they would need to do.

Jamie beamed, grabbing Alister by the hand and leading him into the yard. "Come on then!" he called. Alister, amused, allowed himself to be led over to a spot in the corner, which Jamie had claimed before as his place to hide treasure. "Something really weird happened last night," the boy declared when they reached it. "It started raining these green rocks from the sky!"

Instantly Alister's eyes widened in stunned shock and suspicion. _Green rocks?_ Anyone else most likely wouldn't have thought much of that, but for a former Doom warrior, green rocks signaled possible danger. "What happened to them?" he asked, hoping that he still sounded nonchalant. Actually he was growing concerned for his young friend's well-being. Suppose . . . just suppose . . . that Doom Reborn had already managed to get hold of Orichalcos stones and were releasing them throughout the world. . . . That could mean disaster for everyone!

"We all gathered them up and brought them to Miss Ayamoto," Jamie answered, then grinned impishly. "Well . . . most of 'em, anyway." Now he reached into a hollow tree stump, pulling out the small box where he kept various special items. He lifted the lid, revealing the latest treasure inside. "See? They're all like this one."

Alister's eyes narrowed as he reached into the box and pulled out the turquoise gem, turning it over and over in his hand. It looked exactly like an Orichalcos stone, though he couldn't be completely sure—but he could not think of a reason why any other kind of rock would be falling from the sky. It was not very likely that an airplane had lost its entire shipment of priceless gems, after all.

Jamie bit his lip. "It's kinda weird sometimes, though," he confided then. "It almost sounds like it's whispering to me." He had not said any such thing to Miss Ayamoto, as he knew that she would not believe him, but he was an intelligent child and was not prone to making up strange things such as this. He was certain that Alister would realize this and take him seriously, as the fact remained that the stone actually made him nervous.

Alister's expression darkened all the more. "What does it say to you?" he asked, determining not to leave without taking it with him. He really wanted to take all of the ones collected, but he was not certain if he would be able to come up with a logical explanation to tell to Miss Ayamoto as to why he wanted them.

Jamie paused, thinking. "Well," he said slowly, "it asks me stuff, like if I want money or a family, and then it says that it has the power to help me get it." He twisted the edge of his shirt. "I don't really like it. . . ."

"I don't blame you," Alister responded. "Jamie, would you mind if I kept this?" Even now, as he was holding it, he could feel it tugging at his mind, whispering temptations to him. A vague shudder passed through him as he clenched his fist around the stone. He would not fall prey to its lies—not anymore.

Jamie nodded. "Sure, you can take it! You could probably take all of them, I bet. Miss Ayamoto doesn't really know what to make of 'em. And what's also kinda weird is that when they were falling out of the sky, they only fell down here—not next door, or in the street, or anything like that!" His eyes widened at a new thought. "You don't think we're being invaded by aliens, do you, Alister?"

Alister shook his head slowly. "No," he replied quietly, and then added almost to himself, "I'm afraid it's worse than that."

* * *

Raphael sighed softly to himself, looking down at Valon, who had fallen into a troubled sleep several moments before. The brunette had been trying to make light of the situation, his previous anger seemingly forgotten, but Raphael could see that his friend was just attempting to hide his pain. He was still just as upset and angry and hurt over everything, but now he had calmed down just enough to replace the carefree mask he usually wore. Gently Raphael covered him with the quilt before standing up, just in time to hear the phone ring. 

He growled in annoyance before heading out into the hall and snatching up the receiver. "Hello?" he said, certain that it came out more gruff than he had intended. He hoped that the noise had not awakened Valon, but when he glanced into the room, the boy still seemed to be completely asleep.

After a moment during which he heard only static, a female voice came on the line. "Hello!" she practically screamed. "Can you hear me now?"

Raphael winced, holding the phone away from his ear. "Too well," he grumped, realizing that the person did not sound at all familiar. "Who's calling?"

"This is Mrs. Martha Paltridge," came the reply as the woman continued to yell over the sound of the static in the background. "I trust you received our lawyer's letter?"

Instantly Raphael's grip on the phone tightened and his eyes narrowed darkly. Now he was not simply annoyed; he was disgusted, irritated, and quite vexed. "Oh yeah," he retorted. "We got it. And we got some other interesting information too—how you and your husband sold your son when he was just a small child. That's 'strange circumstances,' alright," he snapped, quoting the phrase from the letter.

There was a long pause before he got a reply. "I assure you that isn't what happened!" Martha answered. "But there will be plenty of time to talk about the truth. Howard and I are coming up there to see Valon. How is he? Is he well? Can I speak to him?"

Raphael's lip curled in revulsion. "He _was_ doing fine, until the letter came," he said coldly. "Right now he's asleep and I don't intend to wake him up to talk to you. He doesn't want anything to do with you. But that's understandable, after all—you didn't want anything to do with him, either." He only paused for a moment before continuing. "And tell me this—if you missed him so badly, why didn't you try to find him before? It wouldn't have been that hard."

"I can tell you're very protective of our son," was Martha's only remark at first. Then, as if as an afterthought, she added, "We have been looking for him desperately for years. We certainly didn't sell him; he was abducted from us when he was four! But naturally, at such a young age, his memories of the incident could have been blurred."

Raphael was not impressed. He knew that what she was saying was possible, but he was more inclined to believe Valon than her. And there was no changing the fact that it all seemed strange and suspicious. "We'll see what happens," he said gruffly. "But you might be interested to know that we haven't been able to find any trace of that law firm of yours."

Martha laughed. "Well, it's just a small Australian law firm," she answered. "But anyway, we should be there within a day or so. Do give Valon our love. I'm glad he's had such good people taking care of him." Raphael felt his eye twitch in irritation as she finally hung up.

He set the receiver back in its cradle, pondering. She certainly had not given the impression of a mother who was desperate and anxious to have her child back. Actually, she had behaved nonchalantly and flippantly. And, he realized then, she had not possessed an accent either. He sank into a chair, shaking his head and feeling frustrated. As Liu hopped onto his lap, he started to pet her absentmindedly, wondering what on earth they were going to do.


	4. The Intruder

**Chapter Three**

Raphael looked up when he heard the door open. Supposing that it was Alister returning home, he stood and walked to the balcony overlooking the living room. Indeed, the redhead was coming in, drenched from the rain and with his normally flipped hair hanging straight down, though he did not appear to mind. He shut the door behind him and ran a hand through his wet bangs before looking up at Raphael with a hint of urgency.

"We have a problem," he announced.

Raphael growled. "Yeah, I know," he said, coming downstairs. "Valon's 'mother' called. She doesn't fit my idea of a concerned parent. She was obnoxious and decidedly _un_concerned." He crossed his arms when he reached the bottom. "She also said that she and her husband are coming right out."

A look of annoyance passed over Alister's face at this news. "This is also a problem," he said, reaching into the folds of his trenchcoat and producing a small box. Raphael could not help noticing that the entire container had a certain green glow about it. He frowned darkly, watching as Alister lifted the lid and revealed the contents—at least a dozen innocent-looking Orichalcos stones.

"Where did you get those!" he demanded, running forward and lifting one out of the box. It responded by blasting him harshly. Raphael cried out, flying backward to sit down hard on the floor, the stone dropping to the carpet beside him. He growled, rubbing his hand and glaring down at it.

Alister bent down next to him. "They fell out of the sky at the children's group home," he reported. He had retrieved the others from Miss Ayamoto by telling her that he thought he knew who the owner was and that he would take the stones off her hands. She had been quite willing to give them up, much to Alister's relief. It would have been a disaster if she had become corrupted by the stones' powers.

"Well," Raphael grumped, gingerly reaching for the object again to set it back in the box, "you're right. This is another problem." The gem allowed him to pick it up this time and he dropped it carefully back into the carton. Alister then replaced the lid.

"Did you see the news article I printed out?" the lanky man asked now, reaching out a hand to help Raphael up. His friend accepted the assistance and then leaned against the bottom of the banister leading upstairs.

"I didn't," the blonde answered, upon which he retrieved and gawked at it. It seemed to him as though everything was coming at them at once, with no chance to even stop and think about one problem before several more were thrown into the mix as well. He slumped into the computer chair, setting the article back down on the desk.

"Where's Valon?" Alister asked now, noticing that the brunette was not around to inform him that he was dripping water all over the floor. Usually Valon was there to greet him when he came home, supplying some odd remark or another to which Alister generally responded with sarcasm. It seemed a bit lonely to not see him, and in light of the earlier events, Alister might have been inclined to think that Valon's parents had simply taken him away—only he knew that could not have happened because for one thing, Raphael and Valon would not have allowed it, and for another, if it had happened, Alister would have found Raphael in a much more distraught condition. So he assumed that Valon was simply elsewhere in the house, as Raphael then confirmed.

"Last I knew, he was upstairs asleep," the blonde announced in an occupied tone.

Alister nodded vaguely as he went upstairs to change his clothes, taking the box with him. He was not certain what should be done with the Orichalcos stones, but he had decided that they would be better off with them than at the group home. The thought of so many of the rocks being around children made him nervous and edgy. There was no telling what could have happened if he had not wound up there to take the stones away. He set the box on the nightstand in his room before taking his drenched clothes off and getting into something dry. After drying at his hair with a towel, he laid back down on his bed, staring up at the ceiling as he pondered.

_Strange . . . how once we believed these stones were going to bring about the world's salvation._ He sighed, rolling onto his side as he looked blankly at the box on the nightstand. _What did Miruko think of me, allowing my hatred to take control? I said it was all for him . . . because I wanted revenge for his death . . . but I was lying to myself. . . . I couldn't admit that I was the one I blamed the most. It hurt too much to admit it. It was so much easier to blame KaibaCorp. But it was more my fault than anyone else's. I can't even completely blame Dartz. If I'd only taken better care of my brother, then maybe . . . maybe he wouldn't have died._

A tired-sounded yawn brought him out of his thoughts to look up at a sleepy Valon in the doorway. "What?" Alister asked flatly, knowing that the brunette did not usually wander over to his room. He noticed instantly that the boy seemed to show no trace of his earlier outburst. He looked calm and cheerful, as he usually was.

Valon grinned, placing his hands behind his head. "Well, Raph says my parents are comin' over," he said casually, sounding for all the world as though he did not care. "I guess if that happens, I'll probably wind up havin' to go with them and all . . . if they can prove I'm underage, y'know? And if that happened, I probably wouldn't be comin' back. So . . . I was just wondering if you'd care." He leaned nonchalantly against the wall, but Alister was no longer completely fooled by his mask. He knew how upset Valon had been earlier. All of that pain and anger would not simply fade away. Valon was still upset. But he wanted reassurance that his surrogate family cared about him and that they would not allow his parents to take him away, if it came to that. He had put on his mask of cheerfulness because he did not want the others to know how absolutely frightened—how _terrified_—he was at the thought of having to leave and to go back to people who didn't care about him.

The redhead sat up, raising an eyebrow at the younger man. "What makes you ask?" he spoke finally.

Valon plopped on the end of the bed and stretched out, looking at the ceiling. "I dunno," he replied. "I guess . . . I figured you wouldn't miss our rows all that much. Not that I wanna have 'em. But usually when we're in the same room, it always ends like that." He laughed, then sobered. "It's kinda funny, though . . . thinking of how much I'd be leavin' behind—you, Raph . . . heck, even the cat. . . ." He had been pondering over it for hours. Even when he had fallen asleep, he had dreamt of it. He did not really consider himself a "minor," and certainly he did not think of himself as a child, and it made him feel both angry and insecure that something so simple as his actual age could cause him to be torn away from the only family he cared about. That just seemed unfair, and wrong.

_Heck . . . I've probably seen more stuff in a few years than what most people see throughout their whole lives. I'm not an anklebiter anymore, but even when I was one, no one really cared about me. I've always been alone. Is that my lot in life? Can't I ever decide anything for myself? Can't I decide, just once, where I wanna live and who I wanna be with? What right do my parents, or whoever they are, have to come and take that away from me? Tell me that. What right do they have! And what right would anyone have to give them that right!_ He did not trust or like police officers much, nor did he care for social workers. He hated what those kinds of people had done to him in the past—taking away his rights, sending him off to family after family who did not care, and locking him in solitary for trying to defend himself. _Heh . . . life's pretty cruel, isn't it._

He looked up at Alister, who was looking down at him. "So . . . yeah," he said with a shrug, "just wonderin'. . . ." He gave a lopsided grin.

Alister continued to study him in silence before replying. "If you think we'd simply allow them to take you without even trying to fight, then you're foolish," he said flatly.

Valon rolled onto his side. "Yeah, Raph kinda said the same thing," he answered, "but that's not the question, Alister. What if it did happen? Would you care? Would you miss me at all?" His mischievous grin was gone now. His blue eyes were filled with desperation. He knew Alister cared about him, but he wanted to hear it said, in whatever way Alister would admit it. Valon was not a secure person, no matter how much he laughed and smiled. Throughout his life he mostly had always had nothing. He had lived on the streets, stealing just to stay alive. . . . His foster families had beaten him. . . . The nun he had loved as a mother had been killed. . . . He had been thrown into an adult prison for beating up the gang, despite the fact that he was so young. No one had come to his defense. Everyone but Mother Mary had always thought of him as just another street brat, a wretched child with no honor and no scruples, and someone who would do anything to get what he wanted. Maybe to a certain extent, it was true. But he knew that he did have honor and he did have scruples, and he hated always being treated as nothing. Raphael and Alister were the first people since Mary to accept and not condemn him, to allow him to be what he was and not to try changing him (though they tried to offer guidance when they deemed it necessary). He knew they loved him as a brother, though neither had actually said so vocally. And he cared about them in return. But sometimes . . . sometimes he just wanted to hear it said.

Alister watched him, seeing the many emotions flickering through the Australian's blue eyes. He could tell what Valon was hoping for. And, though he preferred to show that he cared by actions instead of words, he decided it would not hurt to use words just for once. "Yes," he admitted then, "I would, actually. I would miss you." He watched Valon, seeing the boy relax in relief and grin happily.

"Well," the brunette chirped, "that's good, 'cause you're gonna be stuck with me for a long while yet! I'm not gonna let them win without a good fight." He cuffed Alister lightly on the arm as he sat up straight.

Alister allowed himself a small smile. "No, I can't imagine that you would." Valon was such a strange, confusing person—cheerful one moment, insecure the next. He was streetwise about most everything, but he still possessed a certain childlike quality that made itself manifest at certain times. He was only two years younger than Alister—or three, rather, if the information concerning his age in the lawyer's letter was true—but he seemed worlds apart from the aloof and serious war orphan.

Now Valon glanced over at the nightstand. "So . . . what's with the glowing box?" he asked.

Alister grunted. "I had to bring some Orichalcos stones home," he answered before giving his brief explanation.

Valon's eyes widened at the conclusion. "So . . . how long do they havta stay here with us?" he demanded, not pleased about the prospect at all. Of course he understood why Alister had brought the rocks back, but that did not mean he especially appreciated it.

Alister sighed. "I don't know," he said quietly.

That was the last time he and Valon shared a completely civil conversation before the trouble intensified.

_

* * *

_

_He was wandering down a long, endless hall. He did not know why he was, only that he was, and that he could hear Alister and Valon screaming at each other somewhere nearby. He groaned inwardly at the sound of their arguing. Couldn't they ever get along? And what was that annoying scraping sound? Liu wasn't sharpening her claws on the wall, was she?_

_He turned the corner. The scraping sound was only getting louder. In fact, it sounded as though it was right there in the room with him. . . ._

Raphael started awake, sitting straight up in bed. His blue eyes, wide open in confusion, slowly narrowed as he tried to bring himself out of the sleepy daze he was still in. The scraping sound was real. With a dark frown he turned to look at his window, only to find a figure dressed in black leaping in. Around his neck was, to Raphael's horror, a glowing Orichalcos stone.

"Who are you!" the blonde demanded coldly, leaping out of bed. Liu, who had been curled upon the covers, now awoke and blinked curiously at the stranger. Too friendly for her own good, the Ragdoll cat started to move forward to rub against the intruder. Raphael reached to grab her, but he wasn't quick enough.

The strange man in black did not seem to mind the furry body moving between his legs. Instead he bent down and picked the cat up, petting her gently. "I don't mean you any harm," he said to Raphael then, "but you have something that belongs to us. I'm just here to retrieve it." He held Liu out and Raphael swiftly took her away, regarding the burglar with suspicion. He did not recognize the person, but it was dark and naturally he might not be able to tell much even if he had ever met the other man before. If he had, it had probably only been a passing acquaintance in Doom.

Raphael growled now. "Who's 'us'?" he wanted to know.

The intruder, who seemed to perhaps be Alister's age, shrugged. "The majesty that is Doom Reborn," he replied. "Dartz had a glorious vision that I and my comrades are now destined to carry out. Earlier today your friend collected several sacred stones of the Orichalcos. That's all I've come for." He tried to head for the door. "I don't want to hurt any of you."

Raphael set Liu down on the bed and grabbed him harshly. "Don't you know what you're doing!" he snapped, unable to control the roughness of his voice. "Dartz's vision was the delusion of a man who was slowly being driven insane by the stone he wore! You're not gonna be saving the world from anything. All you're gonna do is cause a monster to be revived that will cause a massive apocalypse! Everything on earth will be wiped out. There won't be any 'purification.' Dartz was a hypocrite. He saw the darkness in others, but he couldn't recognize it in himself." His voice lowered. "None of us could recognize either his darkness or our own. We were all hypocrites." It hurt to admit it at first, but he knew it was true. All of them—he, Alister, Valon, and Dartz—possessed a dark side. It was a necessary counterbalance to the goodness they also possessed. No living person on earth is exempt from that balance of good and evil. Raphael wished so dearly that he had not bought into Dartz's lies about the Orichalcos recognizing those who were "pure of heart" and those who were "purely evil." It was such nonsense, he knew now, but for the disillusioned teenager he had once been, it had been the solution to all the world's problems.

Now the younger man slapped Raphael's hand away. "You've fallen to the darkness!" he declared. "You and your friends all have! That's why you left Doom. That's why you allowed Dartz to be defeated!" He looked at the blonde, and even in the shadows his flashing eyes and the Seal of Orichalcos that was materializing on his forehead were plain to see. "All of you used to be pure of heart, but you allowed corruption to seep in." He clenched a fist, sounding righteously indignant.

Raphael looked at him. He felt only a deep sorrow and pity. This man was just as he and the others had once been—still delusional and under Dartz's and the Orichalcos's powerful spell. Raphael felt a strong longing to help this misguided soul overcome the darkness, as the Pharaoh had once done for him. "I'm sorry you feel that way," he said at last, "and I'm sorry that you're allowing yourself to be tricked by your own darkness. That's what's happening here, and if you don't realize it soon, it'll be your downfall, just as it was for my friends and me." He clenched his own fist, remembering that horrible scene when Dartz had revealed the truth to him about their families' misfortunes. Full of feelings of anger and hatred and betrayal, Raphael had tried to duel Dartz with the Orichalcos—but since he had overcame its power, it had overwhelmed him then, taking his soul.

"Be silent!" the stranger screamed now, thrusting the door open. "I swear it, someday you will regret numbering yourselves among the evil ones of the world . . . when you used to be pure." His voice caught in his throat as he ran out into the hall, searching for the room where the stones might be. Instead he found Valon and Alister both staring at him. They had been awakened by all of the commotion and had come out of their respective rooms to investigate. Now the burglar found himself boxed in on three sides as Raphael also caught up to him. But that was not about to stop him. He lunged forward at the nearest person, who was Alister, and knocked him off balance. His Orichalcos stone was glowing, sensing the presence of others near. If he followed it, it would lead him to where the others were! Quickly he dashed into a room.

He looked about, swiftly taking in everything, but he was uninterested in everything but the box that was casting a soft green light. Immediately he snatched it up, running the encounter with Raphael over in his mind at the same time. _I idolized you. . . . You were Dartz's strongest warrior, but you fell! How could you have let that happen? _He narrowed his eyes, shoving the box into his pocket. He would have time to berate his fallen idol later.

Then he felt a strong hand on his shoulder. "Goin' somewhere?" He recognized Valon's youthful, accented voice. Swiftly he elbowed the boy in the ribs and then judo-flipped him over onto the floor, where the brunette knocked a lamp down and became entangled with it in the process. The Doom Reborn warrior watched him disdainfully before sprinting to the window with expert agility and speed. He would just leap out, breaking the glass, and be on his way. There was no reason why he needed to leave via the same way he had entered.

But Alister and Raphael came at him then, from opposite sides. "Sorry," Alister grunted, "but somehow I don't find it a good idea for you to get hold of any more stones than you already have." He tried to grab the other man, who was almost his match in physique, and somehow managed to pull him back from the window. The stones spilled out onto the floor, bouncing in every direction.

"I've got one!" Valon cried, finally freeing himself from the lamp, and snatched up two that were close by him. Raphael managed to retrieve several as well, though his attention was quickly diverted as Alister and the stranger fell to the floor, locked in a violent struggle.

First Alister would manage to get the upper hand, pinning his opponent to the floor. Then the intruder would deliver a harsh blow to his stomach and get him in a chokehold. Alister gripped at the arm around his neck, trying to loosen it, and finally managed to hit a pressure point. The stranger cried out, his arm going numb. Then he lunged again, slamming Alister harshly against the wall. Alister grunted in pain, managing to then do the same thing to his assailant, shoving him face first into the plaster and wood.

A soft cracking sound was heard as the burglar's stone started to break in half from the pressure of the fighting and from the sheer amount of energy that was channeling through the warrior's body as he grew all the more incensed. He whirled back around, driving the other half into Alister's wrist and obviously trying to slice his vein with the jagged edge. Alister gasped in pain, managing to grab the other man's wrist with his uninjured hand, wrenching it around and forcing him to give up his attempt. Obviously the Orichalcos was getting a strong hold over this one.

Alister felt a sudden wave of dizziness pass over him, but he ignored it as he struggled to continue fighting anyway. Then it came on him again, more fiercely than before, and he stopped to look down shakily at his wrist, which was bleeding profusely. Noticing a part of the stone still stuck in the wound, the redhead gingerly reached to pull it out. That was when he was abruptly kicked and shoved backward by his attacker, who then ran forward with lightning speed, grabbing Valon up in a chokehold and drawing a concealed knife to hold in front of the Australian's face. Alister lay dazed for a moment, but then heard the man's voice and looked up shakily.

"Drop all the stones you're holding," the intruder ordered both Valon and Raphael. "Drop them or he dies." But his hand was shaking, as was his voice. He had never killed before. This was obvious to all three of the bikers. He did not want to do it either, as the good part of his soul was still trying to break free. Valon took the opportunity to do his own elbowing, managing to then get away because his opponent's guard was down. He gave the man a punch that was just fierce enough to cause him to fall to the floor, then leaned down and wrestled the knife away from him. It was not hard, as he had not been clutching the weapon very tightly. Valon retracted the blade as he stood up, holding the device firmly in his hand.

"I think I'll just be holdin' onto this for now," he said smoothly. "And I don't think I'll give up the stones, either." He looked over to Raphael, who was helping Alister up, then back to the man on the floor. "You're kinda outnumbered, mate, so I wouldn't recommend doin' anything stupid." He was flat-out annoyed by this latest interruption. First there had been the news of approaching problems with his parents, and now this? It was all so much. Valon was much too irritated to truly see the man for what he was, as Raphael did. Valon could only see that a strange person had broken in and was attempting to kill them all, and he was understandably incensed.

Raphael was furious as well, even though at the same time he was horrified as he watched the young man's behavior. _Were we really like that?_ he thought to himself in alarm. _Did the Orichalcos actually cause us to behave so outrageously?_ He steadied Alister as his friend tried to get his balance. The redhead seemed dazed and dizzy, though Raphael assumed it was from the blood loss. Another wave of fury serged through him. That man had just tried to kill both of Raphael's dearest friends! He might pity him for what the Orichalcos had done to him, but this couldn't be allowed. First and foremost Alister and Valon were what was important to Raphael.

The Doom Reborn warrior struggled to get up. "But you won't even use the stones!" he cried now, sounding upset and alarmed by that fact. "You don't want them, so why are you refusing to let us have them!" He looked to Raphael. "Unless . . . unless some part of you does want to use them!" he declared, and felt certain that he had found his answer. _Surely Raphael was not completely lost! Some portion of his being must still long for the ideals he had once possessed!_

Raphael's eyes narrowed darkly. "You're wrong," he growled. Now that he knew the truth about the Orichalcos and what it was, he would never allow it to control him again. He despised it and its stones. "I will never want to use the evil power of the Orichalcos again."

"That's right!" Valon added. "We just don't want you fellas to use them."

This remark angered the man and fueled the Orichalcos's power within him all the more. "Really?" he screamed. "You're preventing us from going about on our purification mission!" It was all too apparent that he was very passionate about this, though Raphael couldn't know of the added fact that this man had idolized him during Doom and felt betrayed now that Raphael had left the organization. They had actually never met, except once, but he had always been observing Raphael from the shadows and wishing that he was Dartz's most trusted lackey.

His eyes flamed a deep red now, disturbing the trio that was at his mercy. At any time he was capable of using the Orichalcos's power to do something terrible—though none of them wanted to find out what. The room had started to vibrate from the sheer amount of dark energy he held. "I should have just killed the boy. I should just kill all of you! You're all traitors to Dartz and to Doom!" he screamed. "You're all evil and your souls aren't even worthy of feeding to the great Leviathan!"

Raphael could tell that they were losing whatever goodness still resided in the man's spirit. "Look at yourself!" he yelled back. "Look at what the Orichalcos is doing to you! It's releasing the dark part of your soul. You're not pure of heart. You're not spared from the darkness, no matter what Dartz has told you!" He felt desperate. This man was on the brink of insanity due to the Orichalcos's wicked magic. He was certain that all four of them would die if something was not immediately done, but he had no idea what that something could be. He racked his mind frantically for ideas.

"Your hatred and your passion are being twisted by the Seal," Alister spoke up darkly, his gray eyes narrowed. He recognized this all too well. This man was perhaps not so unlike himself. He was holding a cloth over his bleeding wrist, but the dizziness persisted. Alister almost felt as though he was about to pass out.

"It's a lie!" was the almost frantic reply. "You hate the Seal and everything it stands for, so you're the ones twisting things! I hate all of you for your betrayal! I hate you for deserting Master Dartz!" Another furious blast of energy was sent forth, fierce enough that it caused all three of the bikers to be thrown off their feet, slamming hard into the nearest wall.

Then, abruptly, all was silent.

* * *

Raphael was the first to begin regaining consciousness. He groaned softly, rubbing at his aching forehead as he tried to take in the scene around him. It seemed that the Orichalcos's presence was gone, as well as the man who had been wielding it. Everything seemed calm and peaceful once again. But what of the others? Feeling a certain panic, the blonde looked around for his friends and then found them slumped against the wall next to him. Both seemed to be reviving, much to the man's relief.

"Are you both alright?" he asked, coming to kneel in front of them.

Valon opened his eyes weakly, looking up at his friend. "Yeah, I think," he moaned. "But crikey, I never realized the Orichalcos could pack such a punch." He grinned lopsidedly, then looked over to Alister, who was stirring now as well. "You okay there, chum?"

Alister grunted, raising his left hand to rub at his head. "Fine," he answered shortly. For some reason, his right arm currently felt too heavy to lift. He looked down blearily at it, noticing again the slice across his wrist. He blinked at it, wondering how it had gotten there, and then vaguely remembered being cut by their attacker's pendant after it had broken in half during their fight. He grunted vaguely, not thinking much of it in his semi-conscious state, though it did seem to be hurting extraordinarily for something that wasn't life-threatening. "I'm fine," he said again, noticing how his friends were regarding him worriedly.

Raphael shook his head. "You'd better be," he growled, glancing around the room. "It looks like our visitor made off with the

stones." He clenched a fist. At least, though, he hadn't had to attack the children's group home to get them. That was probably another reason why Alister had brought the box home with him. But the last thing Doom Reborn needed was more stones.

Valon struggled to stand up, shaking the cobwebs from his mind, and then reached out a hand to help Alister. When the redhead stared at his hand blankly, Valon grew slightly frustrated. "Come on!" he cried. "Are you sure you're okay!"

Alister grunted, his mind clearing enough that he could grab onto Valon's hand with his own, uninjured one. "Yes," he said firmly as he rose. The dizziness had passed now. Surely it was not anything to be worried about.


	5. The Parents

**Notes: I never said Dartz was still in charge of Doom. That's the whole point: he isn't, and some other people who believed in his ideals started it up again. And I picked the last name for Raphael myself. You can borrow it if you credit me.**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter Four**

Raphael sighed, surveying Alister's room several minutes later. He and the others had just spent time righting the furniture and cleaning up shards of broken green crystal. Indeed, their strange intruder had taken all of the stones that they had collected. He had even pried Valon's fist open to get the ones he had taken (he had reclaimed his knife as well). Raphael would have been relieved to have the stones gone, if it was not that Doom Reborn most certainly would use the extra gems to further their wicked schemes. He ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

Feeling a light weight against his legs, he looked down to see Liu rubbing repeatedly, her eyes half-closed in contentment as she purred loudly. Raphael blinked in surprise as he reached down to pick her up. "Didn't I leave you in my room?" he muttered, certain that he had closed the door before he had run after the burglar. But he supposed that he might not have, since his window had been forced open and Liu might have gone out through it had he shut the door.

"Maybe she learned a new trick," Valon suggested idly, placing his hands in his pockets, "or maybe that guy left through your window again and he didn't get your door shut tight, so the cat got it and then Alister's door open." He did not intend to spend too much time pondering over this mystery. He was more worried about Alister, who had started feeling dizzy again (though he had not said so, it had been obvious) and then had locked himself in the bathroom. Valon did not know about the wound, so he wondered if the blast had done something to the redhead.

Raphael grunted, stroking Liu thoughtfully.

"Alister's been in there for a while," Valon said now. "You think he's okay, Raph? Maybe he keeled over." The brunette frowned. "He was actin' awfully funny, y'know?" And he knew Alister would not admit to feeling ill. That was just the way the older man was. Valon was never sure whether Alister simply was too independent to let people know when he was not well or if he was attempting to keep the others from worrying—or both.

Raphael shook his head. "He was cut," he admitted, "but I thought he'd managed to get away before the vein was reached." But with Alister it was hard to know, since indeed he hadn't said anything, though Raphael hoped that if something that serious had happened, the gray-eyed man would have broke down and informed them of it. He sighed, setting Liu down and deciding to check on their friend.

"Yeah?" Valon snapped. "Well, 'thought' is the keyword here, chum."

Raphael knew Valon was right.

* * *

Alister leaned forward, gripping the edges of the sink as he stared at his reflection in the mirror. He felt so strange—not weak, exactly, but as if something strong was trying to get hold of his body. In addition, his vertigo was increasingly worse and he almost felt nauseous. His flesh was obviously pale and his hands felt cold and clammy as he tried to keep hold of the sink. If it was not for the feeling of something trying to take over—and the fact of knowing what had happened when the intruder and he had fought—he would think that he was merely coming down with the flu. As it was, he doubted highly that it was so.

_What's wrong with me?_ he mentally screamed, watching a bead of perspiration trickle down his face.

He raised his right arm, studying the wound again. The blood's flow had slowed now, but with each drop that fell he could see particles of green mixed in. His eyes widened in alarm. _I thought I'd gotten the piece of stone out!_ Suddenly he wondered how much was left in the wound. Was that what was causing this abrupt illness? He sank down onto the edge of the tub, staring blankly at the wound as he clutched his wrist with his uninjured hand. Ribbons of crimson dripped down through his fingers, but he barely paid attention, especially when he heard a voice in his head. It was his own voice, only darker and filled with a certain danger.

"_You want to see justice down, don't you? And you want wars to stop. You're not doing all that you can to make sure that it happens. You have yet to tap into your full potential. I am that potential. I am the other side of your personality. Did you miss me?"_

Alister's eyes widened and he reached up, clutching at his head. "Be quiet," he whispered in a shaking, low tone. "I don't need you anymore. You were supposed to be silenced along with the Orichalcos's influence. . . ." He trailed off, going another shade of pale as realization dawned on him. He had been cut by an Orichalcos stone. Now he was suffering the consequences. Why had it not occurred to him before that this might happen? It was logical. But then, there had not actually been any time for thinking since he had sustained the wound.

While he was struggling against his own inner dark side, Raphael was knocking on the door and calling to him—but Alister was too caught up in his fight to hear him. Not about to give up, and deeply concerned now, Raphael slammed himself against the door, hoping to force it open. After a couple of tries, he succeeded. Quickly he hastened in, looking about for Alister and soon finding him sitting on the tub's edge, his hands gripping at the sides of his head as he leaned forward, facing the floor.

Confused and worried, Raphael bent down in front of him and laid his hands on the younger man's shoulders. "Alister!" he cried, feeling his friend trembling under his grasp. Upon not receiving an answer, he tried again, his voice becoming firm and rough in his concern. "Alister, look at me!" he demanded.

Slowly the redhead looked up, his gray eyes flickering with red. Raphael gasped, drawing back in shock and alarm at the all too familiar sight. "I've been poisoned by the Orichalcos," Alister choked out then. "It's trying to release the darkness in my heart." Of course he didn't ask for help, but that was his way. He was aloof and stubborn and liked to get things done himself when he could, but he naturally needed help with this. Raphael could see the flecks of green in the blood that was running in streams down his arm. He would have to attempt cleansing the injury and hope that he would be able to remove all traces of the stone. The rest would be up to Alister himself. In the end, he was the only one who could defeat his own dark side.

"Fight it!" Raphael ordered him gruffly as he washed his hands and then looked through the opened first aid kit on the counter. This was just getting worse all the time. He felt panic welling up within him, but he forced himself to keep it down. Panicking would not help Alister at all, nor would it help him be able to do what he needed to now.

"What's wrong?" Valon cried, abruptly appearing in the doorway. He had been closing Raphael's window when he had heard the other man breaking the bathroom door in. Figuring that Alister must be hurt, he had then came running over. Now his eyes widened as he watched the blonde man sterilizing a small knife and a pair of tweezers with disinfectant. "And what the heck are you fixin' to do?"

Raphael growled. He cared about Valon too, of course, but right now he was afraid that the impetuous boy's comments would distract him from what was going to be a very dangerous and delicate task. "Some of the rock's fragments are still in Alister's wound," he reported. "I have to get them out now before any more time elapses. But one wrong move could cause me to cut the vein, so I'd suggest that you stay quiet, or else go out of the room if you don't want to watch."

Alister looked up again before Valon could reply, his expression twisted into a wicked smirk. "What's wrong?" he asked nastily. "Are you afraid of how the Orichalcos will set me free?" Then immediately he grimaced, shuddering as he looked away from them. He had not wanted to say that! He shut his eyes tightly, berating himself for the breach of control and then resuming his struggle against the growing power of the evil, ancient energies.

Valon was gawking at him. "Holy moly," he exclaimed. Alister's smirk had frightened him. That was not the friend he knew and took pleasure in teasing. That smirking Alister had looked cruel and heartless, capable of doing anything. Valon clenched a fist, remembering the conversation that he and Alister had shared only several hours previous. Purposely he stepped into the room.

Raphael was already kneeling down, gently taking hold of Alister's wrist and carefully digging into the wound with the knife. Alister flinched but allowed this, clenching his left fist tightly. "As you can see," Raphael said without looking up, "this has to be done. He's only gonna get worse from here on out."

Valon nodded, biting his lip. "Maybe I could help hold him still," he volunteered, hating to see Alister in such agony.

Raphael wiped the discovered particles off on a cloth and then used the tweezers to remove from the wound a larger piece that he could see. "That would help," he agreed, feeling Alister tremble again as he fought against the Orichalcos. The younger man was trying hard to stay still, knowing that what Raphael was doing was risky, but the powers he was contending with were fierce. In addition, every now and then it would grab control of him long enough to cause him to say something or another that he would never dream of saying if he was his normal self. Both Valon and Raphael were quite disturbed.

Slowly the Australian lowered himself onto the tub's edge, by Alister's side, and laid his hands firmly on the redhead's shoulders. "Okay," he announced, "Raph's not done yet, so you've gotta stay put if you don't wanna get your vein sliced open. Then we'd havta take you to the hospital for sure and I don't think you'd be too happy 'bout that." He swallowed hard, but tried not to let it be too apparent that he was worried. That would not do, especially when the Orichalcos was trying to take control of Alister's sanity. Somehow he had to be strong and firm for his friend.

Alister tensed as soon as Valon touched him, but then slowly relaxed—or at least, he relaxed as much as he could. He was still clenching his left fist, almost at the point of drawing blood by now, and he was near completely in another world, ignoring Raphael and Valon entirely. What would he do if the Orichalcos claimed possession of him? If that happened, there was no telling what he might do to his friends. He could not let it happen. He never again wanted to be infused with that evil force.

Vaguely he was aware that he was speaking again, and that he did not like what he was saying. His eyes narrowed. It was taking place yet again! Would he not ever be able to get control of his speech? The more he could not regulate what he was saying, the more the Orichalcos would be able to take over not only his words, but also his actions.

"Come on, Alister, you don't talk like that," Valon was saying now, sounding annoyed as he unconsciously gripped tighter at his friend's shoulders. And truthfully, he was a bit annoyed. It disturbed him to see Alister acting so unlike himself. He could see that Raphael was disturbed as well, though he was trying to concentrate solely on extracting all remnants of the stone from the wound. Valon shuddered vaguely, fearful for their friend.

Raphael, in the meantime, suddenly found himself hitting something hard with his knife. There was no reaction from Alister, so the older man determined that it was not a bone. He leaned forward, trying to see what it was, and caught sight of a greenish glow. _Maybe this is the final piece,_ he hoped, gently going at it with the tweezers. This process had been very long and agonizing for him. The wound itself was not very long nor very wide. He was continually afraid that he was going to cause some sort of damage to Alister's bones or his veins as he probed through the injury's perimeters. Under more normal circumstances, he might have determined that it would be better to take Alister to a doctor, but what had happened tonight was hardly normal. And Raphael was worried that the longer the stone's fragments stayed within Alister's wound, the more danger there would be of not only the Orichalcos affecting his mind but also of the jagged pieces causing internal damage. So he had decided that the best thing was exactly this, for him to take care of the wound instead of waiting for a doctor. When he had been on the island, he had once had to remove particles of a sharp rock from his leg after an accident, so he wasn't entirely unskilled with such things.

"Crikey!"

Abruptly Raphael snapped completely back into the present. He had been so intent on getting the piece of stone out that he found he had been doing it automatically. Now he found that he had it free, and that Valon's exclamation was likely due to the fact that it was approximately an inch long and half that in width. Raphael's eyes narrowed darkly as he studied it.

"Is that all of it?" Valon demanded, staring at it with goggle-eyed interest. He felt Alister start to sag against him and he struggled to keep a hold on the wounded young man.

"I hope so," Raphael answered grimly, studying the wound again and then looking up at Alister, whose eyes were half-open and quite glazed. "Alister?" he called firmly. He could not find any more traces of the rock, but he wanted to make sure. And he assumed that when all of it was gone, Alister would go back to normal.

"Are you with us, chum?" Valon also looked over at him, watching the redhead shudder and look as though he was about to black out. _I hope he doesn't. . . ._

Alister moaned low, blinking several times as their voices became more clear to him. The darkness was receding. He could feel it slowly but surely going back into the recesses of his heart. But it was not gone completely. Of course, it would always remain, but more than that, Alister could feel that the Orichalcos's power was remaining as well, even though the removal of the stone's fragments was making it go dormant for the time being. But he had the terrible feeling that this was not over. He had been infected by the Orichalcos, and no mere removal of the stone itself was going to make that go away. For now, though, it seemed that there would be a break from the torment.

He took a deep breath. "Yes," he responded finally, attempting to straighten up and to not lean on Valon. He could not see it, but his eyes had gone back to their pure gray, with no trace of the Orichalcos's influence.

Raphael relaxed, setting about gently wrapping Alister's wrist with a bandage after putting some ointment on the wound and wiping away the blood that was still on the younger man's arm and hand. "Are you alright?" he asked quietly. He was relieved to see the natural color of Alister's eyes once again, as well as the redhead's usual impassive expression. The uncharacteristic smirk and his choices of words had unsettled Raphael extremely, though indeed he had tried to hide that fact as he had tended to the man's injury.

"For now," Alister told him slowly, watching him wrap the offending injury. He nodded vaguely as a sign of thanks. The dizziness had passed, as well as his other ill feelings, and for a moment he allowed himself to consider the possibility that maybe it truly was over. Surely the removal of the stone would eliminate the Orichalcos's effects, would it not? Still, Alister felt a shiver go up his spine. _It's not gone. . . ._

"Whaddya mean, 'For now'?" Valon cried indignantly. "You should be fine now, shouldn't you?" He let go of Alister once he was certain that the redhead would not topple to the floor the instant he no longer had someone to lean on, eyeing him suspiciously. "Or maybe you're just bein' pessimistic, like Raph." Raphael grunted at that remark.

Alister placed his left hand on the tub's edge and eased himself up. "Something like that," he responded. _Maybe that's all it is—just pessimism._ He would like to believe that. The last thing he wanted to think was that the Orichalcos could still get control over him. It was a frightening thought. What would happen to Raphael and Valon if he was consumed by the darkness? Would he be capable of harming them? Towards the end of his second duel with Seto Kaiba, he had gone truly insane, both from his original hatred and from the Orichalcos's manipulation of that hatred. But he hoped that nothing like that would happen again. Surely, he determined, it would not, since he had reached the point of insanity after years of being corrupted by his darkness and the Orichalcos. But that ancient power was unpredictable. It could bring about almost anything it chose. That worried Alister.

Raphael sighed, straightening up as well and being prepared to steady Alister if he suddenly lost his balance. "Let's get you back to bed," he directed. "Maybe you'll feel completely recovered by morning." He could sense Alister's concern, but he also knew that the gray-eyed man would not tell him anything at the moment. If he wanted to later, he probably would when Valon was not around. Often Alister confided in Raphael alone, causing Valon to become upset and irritated when he found out. But the truth was that Alister knew Valon would probably become overly emotional and upset if Alister told him some things, and so the redhead was not always certain that it was good to let him know such things. Raphael, on the other hand, was more calm and reasonable, so if Alister had a choice to talk to one or the other about a problem, he usually would choose Raphael.

"Maybe," Alister agreed cautiously, studying his reflection in the mirror and discovering that he had a bit of blood in his hair from when he had reached up with both hands. With a slight frown he turned the hot water on, dunked his head under the water for a moment, and then straightened up, shutting the tap off and grabbing a towel as he headed out of the bathroom. He was too weary to take a shower tonight, so that would have to do for now. He did not bother to take note of Valon's perplexed expression as he walked past the boy.

* * *

All three of the former Doom warriors overslept the next morning, exhausted from their experiences in the middle of the night. Still, Raphael found that he was the first to rise. Slowly he sat up in bed, the events from before coming back to him. The stones were gone, Alister had been poisoned by the Orichalcos, and the last thing Raphael had known was that Alister was apparently concerned that the power's influence had not gone away. He frowned, gazing down at the quilt and wondering what exactly he could do to help the younger man. At some point today, he decided, he would have to see if he could talk to Alister. That may or may not prove easy, he knew. It depended a good deal on Alister's mood.

Then there was the other problem, with Valon's parents. Raphael slumped back into the pillows with a groan when he recalled that as well. And they were supposed to be coming at some point today. He definitely was not looking forward to that.

Actually . . . was that a knock at the door that he was hearing now? The blonde man frowned, throwing back the quilt and climbing out of bed groggily. He reached for a robe and found that wearing it was out of the question due to Liu being happily curled up asleep upon it. With a sigh he left the room and headed downstairs, muttering all along that he was coming.

When he threw the door open a moment later, he had to step back and just blink in confusion. A middle-aged couple was standing on the porch—the woman wearing a sharp, formal business jacket and skirt that went well with her sandy-colored hair, and the man wearing a brown suit that almost exactly matched his brown hair and mustache. Both had piercing blue eyes and were looking at Raphael appraisingly. At last the woman spoke. Raphael was not happy to realize that he recognized her voice.

"Are you Mr. Raphael Laurent?"

Raphael growled inwardly. _It's them._ "Yeah," he responded, keeping one hand firmly on the door. The last thing he wanted was for them to attempt barging inside.

"We're the Paltridges," the man announced. "I'm Howard and this is Martha." He gestured to the woman. "We just got in town and we came to see our son."

Raphael's eyes narrowed. It was too early for this. "You should've called before you bothered coming out," he snapped. "Valon's still asleep." He looked from one to the other, not liking the shrewd looks in their eyes. They were definitely up to something.

"Still?" Martha raised a suspicious eyebrow. "He was asleep when I called you hours ago!" She took a step forward. "You must just be trying to keep us from seeing or talking to him!" she accused indignantly. "We mean him no harm."

Raphael resisted the urge to snort in derision. "Yeah, right," he growled, "just like you didn't mean him any harm when you sold him years ago!" He gripped the door's edge tighter, placing his other hand on the wall. "And as much as I might like to keep you away from him, I'm not telling a lie. He really is sleeping." He would mention that they had been up half the night, but he did not feel that it was their business.

"Well," Howard said, "we can wait until he wakes up." He also stepped forward, but Raphael delivered him a withering gaze.

"If you really cared about him, you should've shown this much interest years ago," the blonde man announced angrily. "What do you want him for now? Do you want to sell him again, to the highest bidder?" He knew that some of their enemies would greatly enjoy getting one of them into their clutches. Valon's parents could be mercenaries now, for all he'd know—greedy as always and anxious to get their son back just so that they could sell him once again. It revolted him.

"Now that's truly uncalled for!" Martha screamed in a shrill tone. "I told you before, Mr. Laurent, that we never did any such thing as selling him! He was taken from us, but he was so young that of course he might not remember things now the way they happened." She grabbed a handful of Raphael's shirt, which he found ridiculous and vexing, and leaned in close. "If you don't allow us to see Valon, we can get a court order forcing you to do so!"

Raphael glared at her. "Do your worst," he retorted. "Maybe it'll surprise you, but I'm not afraid of you or your court orders." He pried her fingers away from his clothing, thrusting her hand away from him.

Howard laid a hand on her shoulder. "Now, now, Martha, it won't do to get worked up," he told her in a falsely calm tone. Raphael could hear the thinly veiled tension in his tone. And he could also hear that neither of them had Australian accents of any kind. This made him rather suspicious, though he knew that sometimes people would go through a process to dull their accents. Criminals on the run might do just that.

"Maybe not, but I'm gettin' worked up!"

Raphael turned, seeing Valon coming over. The brunette's hair was a wild mess once again and he was blinking away sleep from his cerulean eyes. Obviously the commotion had awakened him when he had wanted to sleep longer. The boy gently pushed Raphael aside, coming to stand in front of him with crossed arms. "So, whaddya want?" His gaze went from the woman to the man and back again. They were older now, and not exactly as he had remembered them from his early childhood, but still Valon was certain that these people were his parents. And he was furious that they would even dare to show up after all this time.

Martha blinked at him. "Valon?" she cried, coming closer to him and reaching out to touch his cheek. "Do you remember me, dear Valon? Do you remember your mother?" She gazed at him. "You're so grownup now."

Valon slapped her hand away. "Cut the sweet talkin' garbage, _Mum_," he snapped, spitting the title out as if it tasted bad. This was not how he had wanted to start his day, especially after such a treacherous night, but the situation could not be helped now. "I mean, we both know that you and _Dad_ didn't care about me. Look! I've still got the scars from when you were beating me . . . the day when you sent me away." His voice had lowered by the time he reached the end of his sentence. Swallowing hard and shaking a bit, he began to pull his shirt off.

Raphael gasped when he saw the cruel scars that crisscrossed over the boy's back. He had never imagined before that Valon had been concealing so much from him and Alister. The marks were vicious, some having been made by a harsh whip that had broken the skin and others almost looking as though they had been inflicted by some sort of sharp weapon. Raphael was outraged. Valon would have only been a defenseless child when that was done to him! Right there and then he would have been happy to give Howard a rough punch in the face. The only thing that restrained him was that he knew it would not help the situation any.

Both Howard and Martha were startled at first when Valon displayed the evidence of their cruelties, but then their eyes narrowed and their expressions became dark. "We didn't do that to you," Howard said indignantly. "Either you're recalling it all wrong or else you're purposely lying, but I don't know why you'd want to do that."

Martha bit her lip, reaching out to touch one of the mean welts. Valon tensed as soon as her fingers were upon his flesh and then he immediately whirled around to face her again. "Don't touch me!" he yelled, his eyes flaming with betrayal and anger. "I hate you. I hate the both of you! You left me alone years ago, so why are you both poppin' up again? Can't you leave well enough alone! I was just happy with my life and then I havta deal with you two waltzin' back into it! Well, I'm sick of it. I don't want anything to do with either of you, so you can just go back into whatever pit you crawled out of and leave me alone!" With that he pushed past Raphael again and slammed the door shut before the couple could attempt to come in. Trembling, he started to pull his shirt on again.

Raphael watched him, not blaming him in the least for his actions. Valon had a perfect right to be furious. His parents had been wicked and heartless to treat their child in such a way, and he doubted that they were any different now. "Valon . . ." he began, watching the unnerved teenager heading for the stairs again.

"What?" the Australian choked out.

"I'm sorry," Raphael said quietly, feeling helpless.

Valon laughed bitterly. "Yeah," he agreed, "me too." His shoulders slumped as he remembered how frightened he had been so many years ago, while he was being beaten and then afterwards. He had been bleeding profusely from his injuries, but still his parents had forced him to stand up and walk into the building by himself. When he had slipped and fallen, his father had kicked him before grabbing him up by the arms and hauling him inside. No matter how Valon had cried and pleaded for his father not to hurt him, it had continued to happen. And his mother had eventually joined in as well. They had left him laying in pain on the floor of the rundown office while they had collected their money and then left.

In the present, Valon gripped the banister tightly, staring down at the floor. "Me too," he said again in a halting voice.

Raphael came over to him, laying a gentle hand on his shoulder. Valon tensed at first, but then relaxed and let him.


	6. The Darkness Grows

**Chapter Five**

Alister, laying upstairs in bed, heard Valon's outburst, but did not dare leave the shelter of his room. Instead he buried his face in his pillow, gripping the edges of the plush softness with shaking fingers. He could not leave his room, not if he wanted to protect his friends. He had to suffer alone. The Orichalcos was tugging at his very heart and soul, causing him to feel irritable and vengeful. He was annoyed that Valon was yelling and giving him a headache. At the same time, he was furious at Valon's parents and wanted to deal out justice for their actions. What they had done to a child was unforgivable in Alister's eyes, and he had to avenge it.

Now he shut his eyes tightly. Part of him felt like screaming for help. But he knew that would not do any good. This was his problem. He had to solve it himself.

"_You know you can't resist me. Embrace my existence, as you once did, and you can stop this cruelty!"_

Alister wanted to scream. "I know you exist," he hissed darkly. "I've never denied it, ever since I knew what Doom truly was and that the Orichalcos brings out my darkness. But you can't have control over me." He knew he was talking to himself. He did not have a split personality. It was just that the Orichalcos took hold of both the dark part of his soul and his deepest feelings and passions, twisting them all to its own advantage. If he actually did hear a voice in his mind, it was that of the Orichalcos itself, speaking with Alister's own voice.

Actually, when Alister thought about how the Orichalcos worked, he realized that it was similar in some ways to what had happened to both him and Raphael a while back when Dr. Portman had tried to get Alister to kill a man under a strange form of mind control, hypnosis, and brainwashing all at once. It had started with a drug that she had injected her victim with, and then she had spoken to him quietly, making him believe that what she wanted him to do was what _he _wanted to do as well.

Slowly Alister looked up from the pillow, wondering if there was any connection between that experience and the rebirth of the Doom organization. Perhaps it seemed farfetched, but he had to wonder if perhaps an ingredient in Portman's drug had been crushed Orichalcos stone. Though, he knew as he sat up, if that were so, then why had that bit of the Orichalcos not continued to effect him since that time? It did not make much sense.

He frowned, noticing that the feeling of something trying to control him had passed once again. He wondered if it was going to come and go randomly throughout the day. Certainly he could not continue to remain in his room all the time. If possible, he wanted to keep Raphael and Valon from worrying. There had to be a way that he could control his own inner darkness, after all, even with the power of the Orichalcos pushing for it to come out. He took a deep breath. Since it seemed to be gone for now, maybe he would go downstairs, he decided.

Poor Valon. Alister really did not blame him for screaming. He was certain that even he would have done so, if he was placed in the brunette's position. Valon had a perfect right to be angry. Alister was sickened when he remembered overhearing the boy saying something about "scars." He could well imagine what Valon had been hiding. Slowly he stood, prepared to go out into the hall and downstairs, when he suddenly realized that Liu was sitting on his feet.

Blinking, he looked down at the fluffy Ragdoll cat. Liu looked up at him and meowed, rubbing against his legs in bliss. Alister merely raised an eyebrow at the feline, wondered how she had got in (and without him even noticing), and then picked her up, carrying her with him to the door.

* * *

Raphael watched Valon quietly as they sat at the kitchen table. The boy was staring out the window intently, seeming to be repeatedly checking to see if his parents were still out on the porch. Of course they both knew that even if the couple went away for now, they would be back. And neither one knew what they were going to do when that happened.

"They're gonna try to take me away, you know," Valon spoke at last, gripping the curtain with one trembling hand. "They're gonna try to prove I'm underage so they can say they have a right to have me." With his other hand he hit the table hard, startling Raphael. "Well, I say to heck with it. They don't have any right to take me away. They gave up that right years ago."

"I agree," Raphael responded. "And you know that what Alister and I've told you is true. We'll take things into court if we have to. And we'll do all that we can to make sure that you don't get taken away." But even as he spoke the words, they sounded hollow to him. He knew that the courts were not often fair. Crooked lawyers had a way of manipulating things to their clients' benefits. Innocent people would often be sent to prison while those who were guilty would be given a slap on the wrist and set free. Raphael was disgusted and fed up with it all.

Valon stood up and started to pace around the room. "If I could just find a way to prove that I'm at least eighteen," he muttered, "then that would fix a lot of this mess." Without watching where he was going, he then slammed right into Alister as the redhead was entering the kitchen.

Alister barely batted an eye at the collision. "It wouldn't make your parents go away, though," he said flatly, looking down past the plethora of wild hair into Valon's startled blue eyes. "They'd probably keep staying around here, trying to get into your good graces for whatever reason." Liu, who had been set on the floor and had followed him into the room, meowed in agreement.

Valon pulled back from the older man, irritated at his carelessness in not watching where he was going. "Yeah, well, that's never gonna happen," he snapped. "They treated me like I meant less than dirt. They hated me!"

"So now you hate them back," Alister finished, sitting down at the table. He rubbed his eyes, gazing down tiredly at the wood. It was then that he noticed his wound was bleeding again. The gauze wrapped around it was a deep, fresh red. With a frown he lowered his arm quickly so it was out of sight. "I heard you mention your scars," he added then.

Valon half-turned away. "Yeah, well, they don't even care that they did that to me," he said in a halting voice. "They betrayed me! They only want me back now 'cause they think they might be able to get rich from me again. Well, I'm sick of bein' their pawn and their bargaining chip for their greed!" He whirled back, looking into Alister's gray eyes. "And what about you!" he cried.

Alister raised an eyebrow. "Me?" he repeated.

Raphael was not certain that he liked this turn of conversation. It seemed to him that an argument was imminent. And he had seen Alister hide his right arm under the table. He frowned, wondering if the wound was bothering him. If so, that would not be the sign of anything good, Raphael was certain.

Valon gave one firm nod. "Yeah, you!" he said, coming over and leaning on the table. "You've got your problems too, don't you? I mean, I saw you messin' with your wrist. It's probably not started healin' up, has it?" Without waiting for an answer he reached down, grabbing for Alister's arm to inspect the injury.

Instantly the redhead jerked back, a sudden and uncontrollable vexation flashing through his eyes. "It's fine. Can't you ever believe that when I tell you? I don't need you to nurse me to health!" he snapped back, raising his left hand to slap Valon's away. Then he narrowed his eyes, realizing what he was doing, and clenched his fist tightly instead. _What's wrong with me? I can't hurt him. He's only concerned, anyway. He doesn't mean any harm._ But that did not make his annoyance disappear. If Alister wanted to tell them about his wrist, he would. Why did Valon have to decide that it was personally his business to find out whether or not Alister's wound was mending?

Alister shut his eyes, turning away from the Australian. _I should have listened to my own feelings. I knew it would be a bad idea to come down here while I'm struggling with this. . . . Little by little, the darkness is going to get control of me. If I'm by myself, maybe I can fight it off easier. Then there won't be the concern that I'm going to hurt them._

But Valon's emotions were flaring up now. In addition to his parents coming, now Alister was beginning to act more frustrating than usual? Before Raphael could stop him, the brunette shot out of his chair, grabbed Alister by the shoulders, and forcefully turned him around again.

"You just listen here!" he screamed. "I don't need you bein' cold and everything right now. You got that!" He gave Alister a rough shake. "And you don't need it either. Heck, that cut of yours was pretty bad, even if you don't think so! Raph and I saw it."

Raphael was rising now, moving forward to gently grab Valon and pull him away. He was afraid that he knew what was behind Alister's actions. It was not that the redhead wanted to treat Valon unkindly; it was that the Orichalcos's influence was still seeping into Alister's very soul. Even though he was trying to fight it off, its hold was strong. Raphael understood how that was. And maybe, since this time the power had entered Alister's body without his permission, it was taking longer for it to get absolute control, whereas whenever someone gave his permission for it to enter, it took over almost immediately.

Before Raphael could do anything, Alister rose abruptly, grabbing Valon's hands and thrusting them away from him. He soon had the stunned boy pinned down on the table while he glared down at him with eyes that flickered red.

"Leave me alone," Alister hissed. "If you don't, we're both going to regret what happens next." With that he freed the brunette and walked purposefully out of the room, not bothering to look back when Raphael called to him. He hated himself and he hated the Orichalcos. He hated that he was not being able to completely control it. But his warning had been out of genuine concern. He was afraid of what he would do to Valon if he remained in the same room with him any longer.

_But . . . no . . . I could never hurt him . . . or Raphael, either. As long as I have the least bit of rule over what I do, I couldn't! I can't!_ They were like brothers to him, and just as he knew he would never even be capable of laying a finger on Miruko to harm him, he knew that the same thing rang true for his current family. He raised a hand to his forehead, shuddering as he reached the stairs and struggled to climb up. His heart was racing wildly as he fumbled over the first several steps. _I have to get away. . . . I can't stay here. . . . I'm only going to hurt them. . . ._

"Alister!"

The voice was rough and firm. Slowly Alister turned around, looking into Raphael's stern eyes. His own, he was certain, were a mixture of fear, panic, and urgency. Without a word he gripped the banister and fled up the remaining stairs, slamming the door to his room when he got inside.

* * *

Raphael remained at the bottom of the staircase, haunted by what he had seen reflected in the younger man's expression. He had been certain that Alister was not trying to hurt them, and his eyes had confirmed it all, and more. He feared the power that was inside him. He was panicked because of what it could cause him to do. And he wanted to get away. If they did not or could not stop him, Alister would leave. And, Raphael knew with a sinking heart, they might never see him again.

"Well, good riddance to him," Valon proclaimed, venturing out into the living room and rubbing at his wrists where Alister had gripped him so harshly. "I'll be happy to leave him alone." He crossed his arms, not consciously noticing how hard the fingers on his one hand were digging into the flesh on his upper arm. "I never liked him anyway, you know. . . . Nope, never. . . . I always hated him, so . . . it's not like I'm upset." His fingers dug deeper. "Not at all. . . ."

Raphael frowned darkly, coming over to the boy. "If you get any less upset," he pointed out, his voice dripping with irony, "you're going to plunge your fingers completely through the skin on your arm."

Valon's eyes widened, then narrowed, and he dropped his arms to his sides. "Well," he said haltingly, "I'm not upset and I do hate him. I really do," he finished lamely, looking at the floor as his shoulders slumped. It was pointless to keep this up. "Aw heck!" he yelled.

Raphael gripped Valon's shoulders gently but firmly. "I think we both know that Alister wasn't in control of himself just now," he stated. "Last night he was afraid that the Orichalcos hadn't left him. It seems his fears were founded." His thick eyebrows narrowed darkly. "Apparently getting rid of the stone wasn't good enough. He's still infected." And what was worse, Raphael did not know how they would correct such a problem. What was the antidote for being poisoned by an ancient evil?

Valon stared up at him in horror. "He's WHAT!" he screamed, feeling horror envelope him once again. "No . . . that's not what's going on. . . ." He found himself actually wishing that Alister had honestly and completely been angry with him rather than to find out that the Orichalcos was responsible. Anger would pass, after all, but the sharp talons of the Orichalcos would only go deeper and deeper until Alister was entirely driven mad. He tried to swallow, but found a lump in his throat.

"It is," Raphael replied, "and you're gonna have to accept it, Valon. Otherwise, we can't help him." He looked towards the stairs. "He's afraid of hurting us. That's what he meant when he gave you that warning. And now he's probably preparing to go away." His voice grew dark as he slowly let go of Valon.

The brunette felt as though his world was falling apart. Suddenly his parents were back, Alister was being driven insane, and now he might be going away? But Valon did not want Alister to go away. There was already the chance that he himself might have to leave, against his will. If Alister went away too, their entire family unit would dissolve. "Leavin' us!" he wailed. "But that's just like before, when you tried to go away 'cause of what you did to Alister and me!" With that he stormed toward the stairs and headed up. "Alister can't get away from ol' Valon that easily! I'm not afraid of what he might do!"

Raphael shook his head, following the teenager upstairs. He knew how much Valon cared about Alister, even when the boy did not care to admit it, and he knew that Valon would be crushed if Alister left them. And especially under such circumstances. Raphael was just as determined not to let their friend get away. Then the Orichalcos would dominate him for certain. And even if that did not happen immediately, Raphael feared that Alister might kill himself in order to silence the power. In fact, he thought in horror, how did he know Alister would not do that now? He might figure that since he had been poisoned, there was not a cure and the only thing he could do to protect his friends was to end his life. Unconsciously he paled at this morbid vision.

* * *

When Valon reached Alister's room and threw the door open, he stopped in shock and confusion at the sight before him. Alister was sitting on the bed, clutching his right wrist with his left hand, just as he had done the previous night. He was trembling as he stared blankly down at the unwrapped wound, which was bleeding again and causing blood to drip all over his fingers. He seemed oblivious to the world around him. Valon, who had rarely seen him looking so pale and absolutely alarmed, stopped short and simply gaped, his voice refusing to work.

Then, abruptly, the redhead looked up at him. His eyes were flaming with red once more and there was a wild look within the orbs. "Well!" he cried. "What are you looking at! What are you doing here at all!" When Valon could not find his voice to reply, Alister rose and started coming toward him, appearing fierce and deadly. "What are you doing here!" he repeated, thrusting his injured wrist out for him to look at. "Do you think I did this! Do you!"

Valon swallowed hard, staring at the wound. It was bleeding so much. . . . What if Alister had taken a knife and cut into the vein? He had been suicidal in the past. There was no reason why he might not be again, especially now, when he had this terrible burden to bear with seemingly no relief. "Well," he choked out finally, "maybe. . . . Maybe I do!" He glared at the older man. "Did you, Alister? Did you do that!" Now that the redhead was up closer, Valon could see the turmoil in his eyes. He hated seeing Alister like that! Alister was supposed to be calm, his eyes impassive and his manner unthreatening. But Valon narrowed his eyes, refusing to be intimidated by this other side to his friend.

Alister laughed bitterly. "Oh, to escape this mad world," he replied. "Oh wait—maybe it's me who's mad! Maybe everything around me is perfectly sane and normal while I'm the misfit." He continued to hold his wrist in front of the boy. "I didn't do this to myself," he said then, his voice lowering abruptly. "The Orichalcos did this to me! I'm dying, Valon. I've been poisoned." Abruptly a wave of dizziness passed over him and he swayed, nearly losing his balance. But instead of crashing to his knees, he found himself being steadied by both Valon and Raphael, the latter of who had just arrived upstairs.

"You're not dying!" Valon screamed, tears threatening to break loose. "You can't die, Alister! Not now!" He wanted to shake the older man in hopes of bringing him to his senses, but when he saw how Alister was already shuddering he decided against it. "You're not dying," he said again, his own voice dropping.

Alister slumped against Raphael, raising his gray-eyed gaze to meet his friends'. His orbs were soft and sad now, the red glow flickering as it started to fade away. "Not physically dying," he answered quietly. "My heart and my soul are dying. With every minute it's getting harder to control the darkness within me. You know how the Orichalcos is. It's almost impossible to break free of it." His voice was weary now, as though he had accepted his fate. Indeed, though he would not give up, he doubted that he could change it.

"But we _did_ break free of it," Raphael responded, his own voice just as quiet now, yet firm and unyielding. "There's no reason why you can't succeed again, Alister." He paused. "And there's also no reason why you have to suffer alone."

Alister sighed in a dismal way. "That's the way it is, Raphael. I was the one who was infected. I'd rather it was this way than if it had gotten you or Valon. But I am alone. Someone else can't remove this dark power from me. I have to conquer it myself. I'm the only one who possibly could." _But that doesn't mean I can, though I won't give up._

Both Raphael and Alister were shocked by what Valon did then.

"The Orichalcos is also messin' with your mind, not just your heart and soul!" the boy yelled, lunging forward and giving Alister a rough slap across his face. It was Valon's hope that such an action would stun some more sense into his friend. "That's not the Alister I know. He's cold, quiet, and he doesn't give in. You're losin' your sanity, you're quittin', and you wanna run away! You're a stranger!"

Alister's head snapped back when Valon struck him. He stared in disbelief at the Australian, as did Raphael. He opened his mouth to speak, but Valon cut him off.

"Raph was right, all of us have defeated the darkness in our hearts," he said firmly. "The Orichalcos doesn't havta have power over us. You wanna know why we were able to get over the Orichalcos?" He rushed on before Alister could answer. "It's because we all had somethin' to live for! We didn't need the Orichalcos. We thought it'd make us stronger. But you know what? It made us weaker, Alister. It's makin' you weak right now! But you've gotta keep fighting it. You've still got things to live for. Don't you get it!" Valon glared at his friend, blinking away the tears that had appeared in his eyes. _I don't wanna lose my friend! Maybe I'm selfish, but I don't!_ "Don't you get it!" he yelled again.

Alister looked at him. Yes, he understood. He had people to live for. They were here with him. And there was Jamie as well, and the other children. But Alister was not trying to give up. He was hoping that in the end, his actions would be able to bring about good results. "You don't understand," he said then, his voice still quiet. "I want to protect you both. If I go away, I might be able to get this under control without causing harm to either of you."

Raphael kept a firm, yet gentle grasp on the slender man's body, but then let go when he was certain that Alister would not attack either of them. After all, he was not looking to take away Alister's free agency. He would have to make the choice himself on whether to stay or go. "If you go away," Raphael said, voicing his recent thoughts, "I doubt we'll ever see you again. And it's not as if this isn't the kind of thing we've dealt with before. We'll stand by you through all of it." _Just as you and Valon stood by me when I attacked you both against my will._ "We also know what it's like to suffer with the Orichalcos. We know you're not yourself. But we're willing to go through whatever it takes to help you break free of the spell. Leaving isn't the answer, Alister."

"Heck yeah!" Valon chimed in, still glaring at Alister. "You can't leave us, mate. Who would I argue with then?"

Something about that remark amused Alister, though he only raised an eyebrow in response. "I imagine you'd find someone," he answered. "After all, you have a knack for overreacting to a lot of things."

Despite the fact that Valon would normally make an angry retort at that remark, he found that he was actually relieved to hear Alister say this now. "That's the Alister I know," he grinned, starting to relax. "So it's settled. You're staying right here." He headed out of the room. "Stay there and I'm gonna get the first aid kit."

Alister shook his head slowly, looking down to the wound once again. "It hasn't even started to close yet," he said to Raphael once Valon was out of earshot. He hated to worry the boy even more than he already was.

Raphael sighed, examining the injury himself. "Maybe you need to get stitches for it," he suggested.

"Maybe," Alister agreed vaguely. But somehow he did not think that would help. He had the feeling that this was another side effect of being cut by an Orichalcos stone. Perhaps the wound would not heal at all.

"What about what Valon said?" Raphael asked gruffly, raising his blue-eyed gaze to meet Alister's gray orbs. "Are you going to stay?" He could tell that Alister still felt a reluctance about doing so, but Raphael hoped that he would remain anyway. He was certain that in the end, that would be the best for all concerned.

Alister shrugged helplessly. He honestly could not say at this point. "For the time being," he said finally, "especially since Valon seems so overwrought at the thought of my departure." _But I hope I'm not making a mistake. What if, by staying, I only make everything worse?_

Raphael simply sighed again. "We would both miss you," he said then.

"I know," Alister responded. And he did. They cared about him, as he cared about them in return. Perhaps, he thought to himself, that was why he had decided to stay—because he did know that they would miss him. _And because I'm too weak to make myself leave._ He wanted to stay, even though another part of his mind was yelling that what he feared would happen if he did. He had to believe that Raphael and Valon were right and that he could overcome this without having to go away.

* * *

Neither of them were aware that their conversation was being overheard by the same Doom Reborn warrior who had brought this disaster upon them in the first place. But he had left several listening devices throughout their house before he had departed with the Orichalcos stones. He knew what was likely to happen to Alister now that he had been poisoned. Eventually the darkness would consume him. It seemed fitting, the man thought, that the Orichalcos would take its revenge on a traitor such as Alister. And by it happening, he would have his revenge on Raphael as well.

"You deserted the cause," he whispered as he sat at his desk in the temporary headquarters of Doom Reborn. "You deserve to suffer like this, by having your friend get corrupted with the darkness in his heart." He took a sip of the beverage in the mug he was holding, then looked up abruptly as the door opened and two of his companions entered.

"What success have you had?" he asked, looking to each one in turn.

"We've collected the Orichalcos stones that fell in several small towns nearby," the first, a young man with navy blue, wild hair reported. He set a heavy bag down on the desk. The first man could hear the clinking of the Orichalcos rocks bumping into each other.

"Then it was a success," he smirked, his eyes flashing dangerously as he opened the bag and lifted out a handful of the turquoise gems. "What about your other mission?"

"Everything's in place," came the reply from the second, a female with auburn hair and green eyes. "But Hans, don't you think you're taking this too far?"

"No!" Hans snapped, the Orichalcos glowing brightly on his forehead. "They're traitors to Doom and Master Dartz. The Valentine girl is as well." His eyes narrowed. "But she and the Australian made a complete mockery out of the entire organization! They joined solely to become physically stronger and to win duels. You know how much I respect and revere Master Dartz, but in the case of those two I believe he was making a mistake by letting them join! He knew that was all they wanted and still he let them in!"

"His purpose was to offer their souls to Leviathan in the end," the girl pointed out, "the same as what he was doing with Raphael and Alister." She sighed, leaning on Hans' desk. "But still . . . I don't know about this. It seems so cruel."

"That's all they deserve!" Hans screamed, slamming his hand down on the wooden surface. "And especially Raphael. He was Dartz's right-hand man, but then he let himself be fooled by the darkness." But even his fellow comrades did not know of his personal vendetta against the man. That was private, personal information that he had always withheld from them, and he would continue doing so. Torturing Raphael would be his own sweet victory.

"Now, let's go," he said, standing up abruptly. "The next step is to get that girl and bring her here. She'll be our bargaining chip in the next phase of my plan." With that he headed in determination for the door, his fire-red trenchcoat flowing out around him. His cohorts exchanged looks before following him out.


	7. The Attack

**Notes: Yes, Valon's "parents" will get what's coming to them. Unfortunately, when that happens, that will unleash an even bigger problem. . . . **

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* * *

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**Chapter Six**

Valon sighed, watching Raphael morosely as the blonde man collected the day's mail and sorted through it. The brunette boy was sitting in a plush chair, resting his elbow on the furniture's arm and cupping his chin in his hand. He found that he was extremely bored—and frightened. He did not know how to solve any of the problems they were struggling with. Right now Alister was upstairs, doing who knows what and probably fighting the Orichalcos again. And his parents were who knows where, probably plotting exactly how they would retrieve their son. Valon wished that they would just go away. And he wished that Alister had not ever been poisoned by the ancient magic force that had corrupted all three of them in the past.

_Why do things like this happen?_ It was a question that he could not answer, though he longed to know why they had to suffer this way. _It's not fair, is it? This can't be right. Alister didn't deserve this._ As for himself, he wondered if he did deserve the problems he was having now with his parents suddenly appearing again. _Heh, maybe it's supposed to be payback for the way I lived my life—always on the streets, gettin' in and out of trouble, beatin' people up. . . ._

He had tried to live his life as best as he could under the harsh circumstances he had been thrown into, but he knew that he had always a short temper that had been a source of various problems throughout the years. He had attacked people in rage, often got angry with Alister, and in the past, victory had always been the most important thing to him. But there was a reason for that. On the streets, the loser never prospered. If one lost in a fight, more often than not, they wound up either dead or very close to it. Valon had vowed at a young age, after losing one too many battles, that someday he would never lose a fight again. Right now, victory was again the most important thing. If they did not triumph, then Alister would go mad . . . and Valon would be forced to go with his parents.

"So," he said, coming back to the present, "is there anything good, Raph?"

Raphael sighed, shaking his head as he set the spam advertisements down on the telephone table. "It doesn't look like it," he answered, but in a way he felt a certain relief because of that. Certainly he could have done without their most recent pieces of unique mail. He would much rather see spam instead of lawyers' letters and notes from Doom Reborn.

That was when the phone gave a shrill ring. Both Raphael and Valon started, not having expected the silence to be so suddenly broken. Then Raphael muttered and lifted the receiver, hoping that there would not be bad news on the other end. "Hello?"

A dark, muffled voice responded after a moment. "We have your cousin Hilda," came the shocking announcement, "and we're going after Mai Valentine as well."

Raphael almost dropped the phone. "Who is this!" he demanded. Instantly Valon perked up, seeing from his friend's reaction that this was not an ordinary telephone call.

"You don't need to know my name," came the cold reply. "But you need to know what we want." There was a short pause, as if the person was gathering his thoughts. "We're harming everyone who is close to you or, in the case of Miss Valentine, close to one of your friends." And there was a professional reason for it, Hans had to remind himself as he observed his cohort speaking on the telephone—not merely his own personal thirsting for revenge. "You see," the young man continued, "while our power is growing, there are still some critical things we need to know in order to move forward with our work. Only you and your two friends know these things, because the three of you were Dartz's most trusted and valuable warriors."

Raphael growled, his eyes narrowing in disgust. "You won't get any information from us," he snapped. "We're not going to stoop that low as to help you with your plans to destroy the world."

"But that's the thing," the caller said smoothly. "If you don't tell us what we want to know, Hilda dies. And Mai will be next." Raphael could hear the sound of the person walking across the floor. "And just so you know I'm not lying," he said then, "I'll let you talk to your cousin for a minute." There was another pause, the sound of a door opening, and then the man spoke again, but not to Raphael. "Say hello, honey."

"RAPHAEL!"

Raphael tensed, his eyes widening as he recognized Hilda's voice. Then it was true. This organization had taken her, just as another group had taken Valon in the past. The same thing had happened then, with them trying to force Raphael and Alister into telling different things about Doom or else they would be threatened with Valon's imminent death. Raphael was disgusted and horrified at such measures.

"Raphael, what were you doing all those years since you got back from the island!" Hilda screamed, sounding both afraid and angry. "These people are saying that you were part of some organization that wanted to purify the world, or some such crazy thing! And now they won't let me go until you give them some information they want!"

Raphael clutched the phone so tightly that Valon was certain it would crumble right in the man's strong hand. "Hilda, I'm sorry," he said, keeping his voice firm and controlled. "You shouldn't have been forced into this. I promise, I won't let them hurt you. . . ." But he wondered how on earth he was supposed to rescue her without giving information out. He could not allow Doom Reborn to learn anything more than they already knew. That could be the end of the world as they all knew it.

He and Alister had both opted not to tell the earlier organization anything when Valon had been taken. They knew that Valon would not want that, and that in the end, if the knowledge had been handed out, that they all would have died anyway—along with the rest of the world. So instead they had managed to trace the call and had gone to rescue their friend. But Raphael hated to remember the events that had happened next, including Valon being beaten half to death and Alister being shot repeatedly. Alister had fallen off a cliff, and for the longest time Raphael and Valon had both believed him to be dead. It had been a horrible time for all three of them. Raphael did not want to see anything of the sort get repeated.

Valon stopped and stared at Raphael in disbelief when he heard him speak to Hilda. Quickly he got up and came over, blinking at the conversation as he was able to now hear it more clearly. This sounded bad. And he doubted this was going to endear them to Hilda. Of course, if he had known at this point that Mai was also a target, he would have been much more upset.

"Well, how are you going to make sure of that!" Hilda demanded. "You're right—I shouldn't have been involved in this! It isn't my problem! Besides," she wailed then, "what will the society columns write about me if they know that this is going on! I've been abducted by a hoodlum organization and now I'm finding out that my cousin was one of them! But I should have known," she said bitterly.

Raphael was growing frustrated. Hilda had a perfect right to be angry, but he did not appreciate the way she was starting in again on how she thought of him as so very much below her. "Do you know where you are?" he asked now, deciding that the best thing for now was to ignore Hilda latest remarks. Idly he wondered what Hilda would think if she was aware that her father had taken over Raphael's father's fortune. He had never told her before, for several reasons—including that they had never been close after Raphael had returned from the island, and that she probably would not believe him even if he did try to tell her.

"It's some terrible, old warehouse!" Hilda answered, but before she could say more, there was the sound of a slap and her captor took the phone again.

"Well," he said smoothly, "so now you know the stakes. You have until midnight to meet our demands, if you don't want your dear cousin to perish. Personally, I don't really find her worth saving, but I know how you are and that you probably feel that you can't even let her die. But think about it. You say that we're going to destroy the world. If you give us the information, then we'll go about doing exactly that, in your eyes. If you don't give it us to, Hilda dies. So actually, the choice boils down to being either Hilda or the world." His voice was precise and calm, not revealing much emotion at all. He studied Hilda coldly as he spoke into the phone. She only glared back at him, frustrated and annoyed with her current predicament.

Raphael growled inwardly. "Where are you?" he demanded.

"Oh, I don't think you'll have a hard time finding us," was the cryptic answer. "Just come before midnight if you don't want her dead." Abruptly there was a click and then the incessant sound of the dial tone. Raphael snarled as he slammed the phone back into its cradle.

"What's that all about!" Valon cried, staring at his friend. "So they've got Hilda or something!"

Raphael nodded grimly, running a hand over his face. "They're going to kill her if we don't tell them the highest secrets of the original Doom, which only us and Dartz knew." But there was another problem. Not even they knew everything. Even if Raphael felt that he had to hand out information to free Hilda, there were some things that only Dartz knew. But Raphael did not want to give Doom Reborn any information at all. Already they possessed far too much power. And since he had not handed out knowledge when Valon had been taken, he would not change his methods now that Hilda was captive.

"Well, that's just peachy," Valon grumbled, crossing his arms. "So what're you gonna do, Raph? Give 'em false info?" He looked up at his friend from behind fluffy brown bangs.

Raphael slumped into a chair, running his hands through his hair. This was just too much at once. And he had to struggle to be strong while all of this insanity was going on around him. Both of his friends were dealing with various problems, and now his cousin, who had rejected him years before, was going to be killed if he did not do something. "I'm sure they're too smart to fall for that," he grunted in reply, staring blankly at the floor as he tried to come up with a plausible idea.

A sound on the stairs made them both look up. Alister was coming down slowly, his expression reluctant and cautious. He had been staying in his room again, fighting against the Orichalcos, when he had heard his friends discussing the outcome of the telephone call. And so, frowning in concern and vexation over another problem, he had left his room and was coming to attempt helping them figure out a solution.

"I could pretend to betray the both of you and join Doom Reborn," he said slowly as he reached the bottom. "Then I could manage to free Hilda." He leaned against the wall, crossing his long arms over his masculine chest.

"Yeah, and what if the Orichalcos took over and made you really betray us?" Valon snapped in reply. "Or what if Doom Reborn didn't buy your act?" He did not notice the momentary look of alarm that passed through Alister's eyes after Valon's first comment.

Raphael sighed. "We can't risk it," he said.

They remained in silence as they tried to determine what the best thing to do would be. Naturally anything they tried would be risky, but some things were more dangerous than others. Raphael and Valon felt that it would be a bad idea for Alister to pretend to betray them. The Doom Reborn members would be able to see whether the Orichalcos was controlling Alister or not, and they likely knew how close the trio was normally, so they would almost certainly know that Alister would not betray them if he was in his right mind.

Liu abruptly let out a loud meow, running out of the room. The trio blinked at her in confusion, then Raphael got up to follow her when she looked back. Alister and Valon exchanged glances and then followed as well. Liu generally did not display such behavior, so they wondered if something was amiss.

She stopped in front of the nearest clock and meowed up at it. As Raphael caught up, he frowned and followed her gaze. "Is something wrong with it?" he asked. She meowed again. Raphael shook his head and reached up to pull the clock down and examine it.

"You think the cat knows somethin'?" Valon asked, raising an eyebrow. "It's probably just some kitty whim. You know how funny cats are sometimes."

Raphael grunted. "I also know how Liu isn't," he said, removing the battery to look behind it, "and she usually doesn't get upset or make a fuss with loud meowing. She's almost always quiet, calm, and docile. . . . Eh?" He narrowed his eyes as he pulled out an unfamiliar, loose piece. It was small and round in shape, and on one side there seemed to be a grid, such as the kind that covered electronic speakers.

"What _is_ that thing!" Valon cried, his blue eyes widening. "It doesn't look like part of the clock."

Alister, entering the room, took it from Raphael's hand and turned it over. He seemed highly intrigued as he unscrewed the two parts, revealing the intricate wiring inside. Immediately he pulled out a pocket knife, slicing through each wire. "It's nothing we need," he remarked when he was done. Carefully he set it on the table for the others to look at.

Valon glared at the device, then reached down and lifted it up. "Hey, this thing is a bug!" he declared. Having been mixed with so many gangs over the years, he had become acquainted with many such shady gadgets. He was definitely not pleased to see this one in the house. There was no telling how much of their conversations had been overheard by the one doing this.

Raphael growled. "We should have known they were gonna spy on us," he remarked, crossing his arms. "There's probably more of these things all over the house." Liu meowed in agreement. "And they were likely put here by the thief from last night." He spoke this bitterly, for the one who had done that had also been the one who was making Alister suffer. The burglar had deliberately wounded Alister with the shard of the Orichalcos stone! Raphael was disgusted.

"Well, let's find 'em and get rid of 'em!" Valon announced then, breaking into Raphael's thoughts. "Those lousy hypocrites! We can't figure out what to do if they're listening in!" With that he went back into the living room, looking for any that had been placed in there. He was extremely disgusted and annoyed by this turn of events, and furious at the one responsible. _He's making my chum go out of his mind! If I ever get the chance, I'm gonna beat him good for what he's done to Alister._

Raphael looked down at Liu, who purred and rubbed against him. Gently he reached and lifted the cat up. "You'll get a reward for this," he told her, stroking the fluffy fur. Liu half-closed her eyes in contentment.

* * *

Forty-five minutes later, the bikers met back in the living room after retrieving what they hoped was all of the listening devices. Still, though, they were reluctant to discuss any plans aloud on how to save Hilda. Carefully Raphael pulled a notepad out of a crowded desk drawer and indicated that they would write messages with that. 

Suddenly Valon's eyes lighted up and he grabbed the pad. "What if we did give them fake info," he wrote, "but only you did it, Raph, and Alister and I got ticked at you for doing it? Then maybe they'd think it was real info and not fake." He showed the paper to his friends, and they looked at it thoughtfully. At last Raphael wrote back, "It just might work, if we do it right." Alister looked more reluctant, but slowly he agreed as well. Raphael then took the paper, removed it from the notepad, and shredded it repeatedly—just in case their house was broken into by Doom Reborn at some point.

Valon leaned back with a sigh. "So now we've gotta figure out where their hideout is," he mused, placing his hands behind his head.

Suddenly Raphael remembered what else the caller had said. In the middle of all the other disasters, he had forgotten. "They're also going after Mai Valentine," he said darkly. He had to wonder if subconsciously he had also forgotten because of his dislike of the woman, but he frowned upon that thought. True, he did not like Mai, but he also did not like the thought that he would want harm to come to her. What he truly wished was simply that Valon would get over his immense crush on her.

Valon leaped up, going pale. "WHAT!" His blue eyes narrowed as he glared at the older man. "Why didn't you say so before!"

Raphael sighed, shaking his head. "I didn't remember, what with everything else that happened," he admitted, running a hand over his face. "I'm sorry."

Valon continued to glare as he headed for the door. "I'm gonna make sure she's okay," he declared sharply, and left. Raphael called after him, but to no avail as the door slammed behind the brunette Australian. Raphael groaned.

Alister shook his head, going to the front window and watching as Valon jammed his helmet down over his fluffy, star-shaped hair and rode off on his yellow motorcycle. "This is all we need," he muttered, his eyes flickering with red again. "Valon is so reckless. He's angry now, and worried."

Raphael growled, grabbing his coat. "We need to go out anyway. Let's make sure he doesn't do something stupid, especially if Doom Reborn is already at Mai's house." _How could _I_ have been so stupid? Alister's right—this is only gonna make it worse, especially if Valon stays mad at me. We need to stick together if we're going to have any hope of beating these madmen!_

Alister nodded in agreement to Raphael's spoken statement as he left the house. "Valon could do something stupid whether Doom Reborn is there or not," he remarked, thinking of how often the boy narrowly missed getting into a serious accident.

He clutched at his forehead, feeling the Orichalcos try to get loose again. _Not now!_ he screamed silently. This was not a good time—not that any time _was_ good. But they were going to have to face Doom Reborn. That would be the very worst point in which Alister could lose control.

* * *

Valon knocked frantically on Mai's door once he arrived at the home she was currently renting in a suburb of Domino City. She never stayed in one place for very long, and it was likely that she would leave Domino again, but Valon hoped that she was still here now. If she was not . . . well, then he did not know what to do. She could be anywhere in the world if she was not here. Valon had been a wanderer like that himself, especially during the period after Doom when he and his friends had been separated. But now that he was back with them, he found that he had no desire to roam about—at least not very far. It was nice, having a place to come back to that he could call home—and especially, having people around who cared. He wondered how long that would remain the case, what with his parents bothering him. 

He cast his blue-eyed gaze idly around the small porch and yard. Mai's convertible was in the driveway, he noted, so surely she was here! Somehow he doubted that the woman still traveled on a motorcycle. That would bring back too many memories of Doom. Valon doubted that she wanted to dwell very much on that time in their lives.

At last he heard the door open and he quickly turned back. "Mai?" he called hopefully, looking through the small crack between the door and the chain that was mostly holding it shut. He saw a startled violet eye looking back at him.

"Valon!" Mai exclaimed in disbelief. _What was he doing here?_ Inwardly Mai worried, wondering if he was coming to again declare his love for her. She did not want to have to reject him again. The truth was that she cared about Valon dearly, but only as a friend. She honestly did not feel romantic feelings for anyone, Joey Wheeler included. She was not certain that she ever would engage in any sort of romantic relationship.

Valon grinned lopsidedly, relieved to see that she was safe. "It's me, in the flesh," he said, leaning on the outside doorframe as he sobered again. "Listen, Mai, we've got a big problem and you're gonna get stuck right in the middle of it."

She frowned, studying his blue orbs. He was serious, she could tell. "Just a minute," she said quietly, and shut the door so she could remove the chain.

As she opened it again, Valon could see that she was wearing another of her trademark purple outfits, though this time her blouse was white again and not black, as it had been during the time she had been in Doom. Valon decided to himself that white suited her better, though he was perfectly happy to see her in any color of clothing.

Carefully he explained the problem to her, at least as much as he knew, and she listened, her violet eyes narrowing darkly as he came to the latest telephone call and how the person had said that Doom Reborn would be targeting Mai Valentine.

"I guess they want you 'cause you were with us too," Valon finished slowly. He knew the memories of Doom were not easy for either of them, and indeed, he saw Mai look away for a brief moment. He wondered if she regretted ever joining Doom . . . and meeting him. He was certain that, since Doom, she had not had much contact with Yugi and the others who had been her friends. She had not had much contact with him, either. Someday, Valon wanted to ask her what she had meant by leaving the Harpie Lady card behind for him when Doom had ended, but he knew that now was not a good time.

"I guess so." Mai turned back to face him, flipping her long blonde hair over her shoulder. "But I'm not worried. After all, I can take care of myself." She gave him a characteristic wink. Perhaps it was hard for her to be around him, since she knew she could not return the feelings he held for her, but she would do her best not to show any discomfort.

Valon sighed. "I know you can, Mai, but these people are dangerous. Heck, look what they're doing to Alister." He clenched a fist tightly. "He's gonna go nuts," he said bitterly, "and Raph and I don't know how to help him." He caught sight of a bright green beacon out the window and his eyes widened. "Holy. . . ." Quickly he got up, making his way over to look out through the glass. Mai soon joined him.

"I guess that's where they're keeping your friend's cousin?" she mused.

Valon took note of how she said "your friend" and sighed again inwardly. He knew that Mai did not like Raphael or Alister very much, but he also knew that the feeling was a good deal mutual. Still, he did not want to think that Raphael had purposely forgotten to tell him earlier about Mai also being targeted. Surely it had been an accident. "Looks like it," the Australian answered, narrowing his eyes at the sight. "Alister and Raph shouldn't have any trouble finding it."

Mai crossed her arms. "You should go with them, Valon," she said quietly. "I'll be fine, but they're probably going to get into a lot of trouble." _Not that you won't._ She looked at the reckless boy. Valon could be as much as seven years younger than her, she silently mused, but it was not really the age difference that separated them, since Valon acted like an adult around her. The problem was simply that she was not in love with him, though if asked to explain why, she was not certain that she could give an answer. "They're your friends, Valon. They're all you've got."

Valon frowned. "You could wind up getting attacked if I left," he said. "I care about Alister and Raph, but . . . I care about you, too." He felt his insides twisting. Really, what would he do? He knew that Alister and Raphael were capable of taking care of themselves (and that Mai was, too), but Doom Reborn was _dangerous._ What one of their warriors had done to Alister was proof of that. Valon wanted to be able to help all of the people he cared about to be safe. Why did he have to make a choice? It was so frustrating!

Abruptly a window shattered behind them and they both whirled around. Wandering into the house were at least half a dozen strange men, each one wearing the Orichalcos stone around his neck. Mai frowned darkly, clearly not impressed by the sight. Valon clenched a fist, glaring at the intruders as he started to get extremely angry.

"What do you want?" he snapped. "If it's Mai, then I hate to disappoint you, but you're not gonna be able to get her." Mai opened her mouth to protest, but Valon stepped up to the nearest Doom Reborn warrior and grabbed his wrist when the man attempted to attack him. Valon punched him harshly in the stomach and then proceeded to send him flying over his shoulder to crash into the wall. Mai, not intending to just stand by as the fight happened, joined in herself.

* * *

Alister and Raphael, meanwhile, had already discovered the light from the Orichalcos that Valon had seen from Mai's window. It seemed to be coming from down at the docks, they noted, but going there would have to wait just a bit longer. They were approaching Mai's home, and they took note of Valon's motorcycle in the driveway. They also took note of the sounds of battle coming from inside, and the broken window. 

"It looks like they have company," Raphael remarked darkly as he climbed off his own motorcycle and removed his helmet.

"And I doubt any good will come of it," Alister said, still struggling against the dark powers. He resisted an urge to moan in pain as both a wave of dizziness and a harsh headache hit him all at once. As he followed Raphael up the walkway, he stumbled and almost fell. He could feel the Orichalcos tearing at his mental defenses. It was frightening, knowing that if he was not careful, he would wind up not being in control of his own body.

Raphael turned to look back at him. "Are you alright?" he asked, regarding his friend with a deep concern. He was afraid for Alister, and for what the Orichalcos would eventually do to him. The poor man was likely going to completely lose his mind, but Raphael could not bear to think of that and so he struggled to hope that they would be able to figure out some way to overcome the darkness.

Alister looked up at him after silently berating himself. "Yes," he answered, his voice breaking as they reached the porch.

As Raphael flung open the still-unlocked door, the sight of the intense battle going on inside made both of the men annoyed and outraged. The original six warriors had since been joined by two more, and eight at once was simply too much for Valon and Mai to cope with. Valon was being beaten to the floor by four of them while the other four were attempting to drag Mai outside, inspite of her furious kicking and struggling.

Raphael growled. "This is an unfair fight, don't you think?" he said coldly to the Doom Reborn men. Even though he did not like Mai, he was disgusted by the way things were going for her now. And when he saw Valon being furiously beaten, he could barely contain himself. He ran forward, grabbing one of the attackers and throwing him to the floor. The man gave a yelp as he crashed, obviously not having expected this interruption.

And something was happening to Alister, as well. He, also, was outraged by the sight around him, and he felt anger and hatred for Doom Reborn rising up in his heart. How dare they do this? How could they be such hypocrites? They wanted to purify the world, they claimed, and there they were, allowing and indulging in such cruelty as this! He was not going to stand for it. This was the final straw. Eyes flashing, he lunged at the nearest thug, who had been striking Valon repeatedly with what looked like a golf club, and grabbed his shoulder.

Blearily Valon looked up, feeling that the pain was stopping. _What's going on?_ he wondered in his semi-conscious state. As he tried to focus, he saw that both Raphael and Alister were there. And he saw something else, as well. The look in Alister's eyes sent a chill down his spine. He looked completely murderous.

"Leave him alone," he hissed, "unless you want to die."


	8. The Seal

**Chapter Seven**

Everyone, even the warriors who had been attempting to take Mai away, stopped and stared at Alister with disbelief and perhaps a bit of apprehension. His gray eyes were flickering with red once again and the image of the Seal of Orichalcos was starting to appear on his forehead, but now he was so angry that he did not even take notice. Violently he twisted his enemy's arm around and then sent him crashing to the floor. Ignoring his victim's cry of pain, Alister stepped forward, eyes burning, and met the next of Valon's attackers head-on, punching him in the stomach as he gave a wicked sneer.

"It makes you feel good to attack someone like Valon, doesn't it," he said darkly, the smirk never leaving his face. Raphael, Valon, and Mai (who had managed to break free of her captors when they had gotten distracted) were all highly disturbed. Alister looked insane with delight as he tormented each of the Doom Reborn warriors. "After all, he's younger than you, and most certainly a much better person, so naturally you have to harm him. Unfortunately for you, I enjoy dealing out justice to your type." Upon seeing that the fourth one was lunging at him with a knife, he kicked out, knocking the weapon away, and then pinned the hapless man to the floor. Carefully and precisely Alister's fingers wrapped around the throat. "You deserve whatever I do to you," he hissed.

Valon struggled to sit up. "Alister, cut it out!" he choked, reaching desperately for his friend with a shaking hand. He could not stand to watch this any longer. When Alister was in control of himself, he never behaved in this way! But now, having witnessed the attack on his friend, he was obviously losing more of his mind to the Orichalcos's darkness. His eyes were wild and his expression was sadistic.

Weakly Valon leaped on the older man's back, trying to pull him away. In response, Alister let go of the intruder's throat to instead try to shove Valon off. Due to Valon's dazed condition from the fight (and Alister's added physical strength from the Orichalcos's power), Alister succeeded in his effort and the brunette toppled back to the floor with a hiss of pain. "Get off me," the redhead growled. "You're in my way."

Now Raphael moved forward, reaching down firmly and grabbing Alister under his arms. "Just a minute ago you were fighting in Valon's defense," he pointed out, "and now you couldn't care less about him? Snap out of it!" He gave his friend a rough shake, swallowing a lump in his throat as he did so. He could hardly stand to watch Alister descending into madness. This entire experience was insane. Alister should never have been forced to suffer like this!

Initially Alister was too stunned to do anything, but then he struggled to get out of Raphael's grasp. The blonde retaliated by wrapping his strong arms firmly around the slender man's waist, preventing him from getting away. "Look at yourself, Alister!" he cried harshly. "You're letting it corrupt your heart and mind. You have to get control of yourself _now_, before someone gets seriously hurt!"

"That's right!" Valon cried, shuddering as he knelt on the floor beside his friends. "Come on, Alister! You can't let us down!" He glared coldly at the redhead, but he could only keep that up for a moment before his immense worry shined through and his blue eyes glistened with unshed tears. _He's one of my two best friends . . . and all we can do is stand around and watch him suffer and lose his marbles!_ Again he felt a burst of hatred for the one responsible.

Alister struggled again, letting out an almost inhuman scream before breathing heavily and slumping in Raphael's arms, in defeat. Slowly the Orichalcos symbol faded once again and his eyes returned to their normal gray luster. He looked up at Raphael and then over at Valon, feeling his heart twist many times over. "That . . . that wasn't supposed to happen," he whispered, obviously shaken as he remembered what he had done. It had all started as righteous indignation for the way Valon had been being treated, but it had quickly developed into an anger and a hatred that the Orichalcos could easily manipulate. Alister's entire mental vision had been clouded and suddenly, for a brief moment, he had not cared who he had attacked—or whether the person was foe or friend. It haunted him now, as he realized that he had even been violent with Valon, whom he had wanted to protect. A sick look came over his countenance.

"I know, chum," Valon replied weakly as he gripped Alister's shoulder, "I know. But I'm okay. And at least for now, you are, too." He tried to smile, but his eyes reflected his concern that this would only continue to happen, and that it would grow worse each time. He had seen how, just over the course of less than twenty-four hours, Alister was losing his grip on sanity and reality. He did not want to see any more, and he could see that Raphael felt the same. This was too horrible to witness—or to suffer.

Mai was simply staring, completely disturbed by the display she had seen in the past five minutes. "I thought all of us had decided that the Orichalcos wasn't a friend," she exclaimed. She frowned somewhat suspiciously at Alister as she recalled what Valon had told her. _He's worse off than I even thought!_ During Doom, Alister had always been the most quiet of the three and the least willing to give his opinion on what he thought of Mai, whereas Valon and Raphael had both been more than willing. _He really is completely losing it, just as Valon told me. . . . And I guess I actually feel sorry for him. No one deserves what he's going through._

While they were all conversing, one of the Doom Reborn warriors had wandered into a corner and was contacting Hans on his cellphone. After explaining the way the current situation was going, he asked if they were still supposed to retrieve Mai Valentine. "This guy you infected went crazy on us," he emphasized. "I dunno that it'd be wise for us to even try to do anything more right now. Besides," he sneered, "him going nuts is a worse thing for him and his friends to suffer. And we've already got one hostage."

Hans listened quietly, contemplating on their options. It seemed as though things were going even better than he had imagined. Alister was losing himself more every minute to the darkness. And indeed, he knew Raphael must be just about ready to go mad himself. Raphael had to struggle so very hard to keep both of his friends under control and to protect them. He had to be strong while everyone around him was in some form of agony. _How does it feel, Raphael,_ Hans mused to himself, _to see one that you care about to be at the point of betraying you? It won't be much longer now and he'll be completely consumed by the darkness that the Orichalcos is bringing out. Then neither you or that stupid Aussie will be able to save him! He'll be gone forever, lost to his own insanity!_ And he congratulated himself on his wicked plan. That was sufficient vengeance for what he felt was an unforgivable crime on Raphael's part.

"Go ahead and leave," he said at last. "You may think the attack was a failure, but I believe it went better than if you had actually gotten the woman." He then cut off the connection, leaving his associates to ponder over his statement. The Orichalcos glowed brightly on his own forehead. His own goodness was completely locked away.

* * *

With their assailants gone and Alister safely restored to his right mind, Raphael insisted on examining Valon to see how badly he'd been injured during the fight. The brunette protested, as was to be expected, but Raphael was firm. Mai then showed them to the unoccupied and mostly unfurnished guest room in order for Raphael to check the boy over.

Alister followed them silently into the room, closing the door behind him and then clenching his fists tightly in vexation and despair. He knew the problem was only getting worse. What if he had actually choked the man he had pinned down? What if he had seriously hurt Valon? . . . _What if I still will?_ He felt sickened just by the thought. _I had wanted to help him. . . . Instead I went out of my mind, and I could have injured him if Raphael hadn't grabbed me. . . ._

As Raphael began to examine Valon to make certain that the boy had not sustained any serious damage, he insisted on the removal of Valon's shirt. This, then, revealed to Alister the harsh scars of the past that still adorned the Australian's back. The redhead narrowed his eyes, outraged as he saw what had been done to the teenager by his own parents. Still, he knew he had to control his anger, if he did not want to see a repeat of his earlier actions. "How old were you?" he asked quietly, confident that Valon would understand what he meant.

The brunette shut his eyes tightly. "I don't know exactly," he answered, grabbing for his shirt again once Raphael decided that he was relatively alright. "Four or five, I guess. . . ." His voice was strained. He hated remembering what had happened to him. And it seemed hard to him, to talk to Alister right now as if nothing had happened a moment before. He knew the redhead was trying his very best, but apparently that was not going to be good enough against the Orichalcos. The boy shuddered, recalling their harrowing experiences on the night when Alister had been falsely accused of murder. Valon had been somewhat afraid to be around him then, as well, as Alister had cornered him at one point with a knife—though Valon knew that Alister had not known what he had been doing. This time it was much more frightening, as Alister _had_ known what he was doing—and he just had not been able to stop himself.

"They deserve to suffer for what they did to you," Alister said darkly, unable to refrain from revealing his feelings of utter disgust and revulsion. Those who would deliberately and cruelly hurt children were, in Alister's eyes, the lowest of the low. Even when he was completely in his right mind, he had a longing to make people such as the Paltridges pay dearly for their crimes. It took a great deal of self-control for him to hold back. _And the Orichalcos wants to break my self-control down,_ he knew, _until there's nothing left but madness._

Valon whirled around, his blue eyes flashing. Even Raphael was startled by the younger man's expression, but when Valon spoke, it all made sense. "Well, don't you be thinking of making it happen!" he scolded. "Alister, you lost your marbles out there! You can't go making a ruckus like that again. If you do . . . well . . . we might not get you back." The last part of his sentence came out choked and broken. "And . . . we can't have that, now, can we?" _It's the last thing I want! I don't want my past avenged . . . only to lose a friend in the process._

Alister watched him quietly. "No," he agreed, "but it won't happen. You don't have to worry, Valon." He turned to the door. "If you're alright, we should see about getting Hilda back before anything else goes wrong. It's already after nine o'clock." The Orichalcos was snaking through his veins, causing him to shudder as he tried to hold it back. But then his gray eyes narrowed and a new determination welled up within his soul. He would prevent it from getting loose. No matter what it took, he had to. Valon was right—he truly had "lost his marbles." And he did not want it to happen again. What if he could not regain control another time? He did not want to say anything, but the truth was, it had been extremely hard for him to push the Orichalcos's power back this time. It seemed almost a miracle that he had managed it. The same miracle might not happen a second time.

Valon glared at him. "No one said I was worried," he retorted, following him out into the hall. "I just . . . hate the thought of you goin' nuts, is all. I mean . . . Alister, you're actually _scary _when you're crazy!" He swallowed hard. "It's like . . . like you don't care about anyone or anything . . . only gettin' your vengeance. And you don't care who gets hurt in the way." The memory surfaced of Alister shoving him to the floor and the Australian clenched a fist. He knew that Alister had not meant to hurt him, but still, that did not change that it did hurt, especially emotionally. _What if we can't save him? What if he can't save himself? What if . . . he really does die, like he said?_

Alister looked ahead stonily and did not answer, but he knew Valon was right. It alarmed him. The Orichalcos had brought out his vengeful side during Doom, as well, eventually causing him to go temporarily out of his mind. Alister hated remembering that time. He did not want to see it get repeated.

Raphael simply shook his head and sighed as he walked with them. "You're just lucky that you weren't hurt seriously," he said to the Australian, who shrugged, "and you're lucky that you didn't hurt anyone seriously, Alister." He looked to the redhead, but Alister gave no indication of responding. And so the blonde simply sighed once again and wondered if they would be able to rescue Hilda. He doubted that Hilda would even be very grateful, judging by how things usually went when he was around her. She did not like him—at least not anymore—nor did she like Valon or Alister. She was probably blaming all of them for the fact that she was involved in this mess in the first place.

* * *

Mai was waiting for them when they wandered back into the living room. "So," she said slowly, "I guess you're alright, then, Valon?" She looked at him, feeling slightly uncomfortable. If Valon had gotten badly hurt, she would have felt quite guilty indeed, since he had been staying there to protect her. But he was walking, albeit with a bit of a limp, and he gave a weak grin when he saw her.

"Sure," he said, though Mai somehow was not completely convinced. "I'm doin' fine. They didn't rough me up much." Even as he said this, however, he was subconsciously wincing from the pain creeping up his back. Being hit with a golf club hurt, but Valon was grateful that he had been able to block some of the attacks and that Raphael and Alister had come before too many direct hits had been achieved. "Now we've gotta go on another rescue mission, though." He sighed inwardly. He also knew Hilda was not likely to even be grateful, but still, he knew Raphael would never leave the woman in Doom Reborn's hands. And, Valon admitted to himself, that organization was likely to do things that not even Hilda deserved.

Raphael looked at the woman with his piercing blue-eyed gaze. "I suppose you figure the danger has passed now," he said flatly. And he supposed that was so, though it did seem strange that eight Doom Reborn warriors would have been scared away by Alister's behavior. He had to wonder if there was not, perhaps, something more sinister afoot. He had been wracking his mind, trying to come up with some idea, but it seemed that all was a blank. Logically, there was not much reason for Doom Reborn to not have tried again to get Mai, if they truly wanted her. The warriors had outnumbered the others.

Though . . . he could not help remembering the young man who had brought this grief upon them in the first place. He had acted almost shattered when he had talked of how Raphael had left the original Doom organization. Raphael started to wonder if that man was behind some of the other recent events, including what had happened here.

Mai crossed her arms. "You saw them run with their tails between their legs," she smirked. "I don't think they'll be back." And even if she thought they might return, she would not have said so aloud. She did not want to depend on anyone for help, and especially not Valon, when he was already hurt. "You three should just go on along now." Though, Valon would probably wind up hurt again, Mai thought to herself with a sigh. But she was certain that he would not leave his friends to attempt saving Hilda by themselves. Valon would probably struggle to the very death to help them—or her.

Raphael had been thinking thoughts along the same lines. "Actually, maybe you should stay behind, Valon," he frowned. "It's true that you could've been hurt much worse, but you _are_ hurt. And you're limping." The boy was likely quite sore and bruised, but Raphael also knew that it would be almost impossible to keep him away. Valon was stubborn like that, and he had become a loyal friend in spite of his initial insistence that he looked out only for himself. All three of them had grown and changed for the better since they had met.

"Aw, come on, Raph!" came the immediate protest. "I'm fine." Valon smirked slightly as he headed for the door. "'Sides, I could do with a good fight, one that has better odds than the last one did." If he thought Mai was still in danger, he would most certainly want to stay behind with her, but he believed as Raphael did—that something very strange was going on and that Doom Reborn was not going to return here. So he was eager to follow his friends on this new quest and to try finding some answers to the puzzling questions that had been cropping up.

Alister laid his hand on the doorknob, turning it slowly. "I think we all can agree that the last thing we need is for you to come looking for a fight," he remarked calmly. "I also think we can agree that most likely the odds will be even worse." Again he sounded like the Alister that Raphael and Valon knew—cool and collected and in complete control of his emotions. Both were relieved by this, but still they wondered how long it would last.

"Well, I can hope, anyway," Valon shrugged, pausing to look deep into Mai's violet eyes before turning to follow Raphael, who was following close behind Alister. He would never ask her to come along, considering what they were going to do, and he doubted that she would even be interested anyway. During Doom, she had never shown much concern when they had gone out on dangerous missions. Of course, she had been deeply under the Orichalcos's spell at that time, but he felt that even if she had not been, she would not have been very interested.

"Valon?"

Curiously the boy turned back. "What is it, Mai?" he asked softly. He understood that Mai did not love him romantically, but that did not mean that he thought she loathed him—even though he knew she did not like either Raphael or Alister.

"Be careful," she told him now, her voice equally as soft, "and . . . thanks."

Valon smiled, though it was a somewhat sad, wistful smile. "No worries," he replied, leaving Mai to ponder over her thoughts and feelings.

* * *

The trio followed the beacon of the Orichalcos out to the docks, where indeed, there were many warehouses. _So that's what he meant when he said we wouldn't have trouble finding it,_ Raphael thought dryly to himself as they quickly located the glowing building. _It sticks out like a sore thumb._ Idly he wondered why curious passers-by never seemed to come to investigate when the bright green glow filled up the sky.

"Alright," he growled softly as they all parked their motorcycles, "remember the way we're going to do this." He looked from Valon to Alister as they removed their helmets. Valon's fluffy hair made a soft rustling sound as it settled back into its normal, star-shaped formation. Raphael had to shake his head slightly in amusement at that.

Valon blinked up at him. "I remember," he replied, "and I remember somethin' else, too. Wasn't that Vivalene mixed up in the group that took me a while back?" He shuddered, not liking the memories any more than Raphael did. _She really got the drop on me!_ he thought angrily, recalling how she had fooled him into thinking that she was a kind, considerate friend. Then she had repeatedly tried to kill Raphael and Alister behind Valon's back and eventually had tried to have him killed himself. _Oh yeah, she was a real friend! Who needs enemies with her around to be a friend?_

"She was," Alister said, placing his sunglasses over his eyes. "Are you thinking that she could be involved with Doom Reborn now?" Of course Vivalene would not have any interest in "purifying" the world. If she had joined, it would have only been for the power that she hoped to gain. She was the most greedy, selfish, compulsive liar that Alister had ever met, and definitely not a lady.

"Well, it's possible," Valon said as they walked toward the warehouse. "Or maybe she'd know some stuff about it. Not that she'd ever tell us if she did, though." He imagined that if someone found and approached her with the right price, she might divulge whatever secrets she knew of. But she probably still wanted the same information that Doom Reborn now wanted, and that would only put them all right back where they started.

"Let's talk about it later," Raphael grunted, hushing them.

As they neared the door, they were only slightly surprised not to see any guards in sight. The organization was naturally expecting them, and probably any sentries were waiting just inside, where they would also be ready to nab any unexpected party. But still there was another problem—they discovered that the barrier of the Orichalcos was all around the entire building, and not just on the roof, as they had initially thought. How would they even be able to penetrate through it?

"I don't suppose there's a stray Orichalcos stone layin' around," Valon remarked, narrowing his blue eyes before abruptly losing his temper. "How the heck do they expect us to get in!" he yelled indignantly. He tapped at the essence and then drew back quickly as a prickle of electricity went through his hand.

Raphael growled irritably. "Maybe they're just trying our patience and they'll release the barrier in a minute," he suggested. "I'm sure they know we're out here." But after they wandered around the perimeter of the warehouse and there was still no sign of the Orichalcos being lifted, he started to wonder if that was so. He did not doubt that they were being watched, but maybe Doom Reborn had no intention of letting them in, at least not for a while.

Alister frowned, getting more annoyed every passing moment with this bizarre delay. As his vexation increased, he abruptly found his dizziness coming on and he stumbled, slamming right into the barrier. It glowed even brighter as soon as he did and the redhead gasped, feeling as though the evil power was completely enveloping him in its embrace. His gray eyes widened and he started frantically trying to pull away, but instead, he only found himself falling into—no, through—the light. _You are part of me,_ a voice from the light seemed to say within Alister's mind, _and you cannot escape it. It is your destiny now!_ His heart leaped into his throat as he realized that the Orichalcos was reacting to the poison within his body. Because he was infused with the evil force, he was going to pass through the barrier.

"Hey!" Valon yelped. "It's pulling him in!" He was not sure at first whether to try to pull him out or to grab on and hope that they would then be taken through the substance as well, but when he and Raphael grabbed Alister's flailing hand, they found that they did not have much of a say in the matter. As soon as they had a firm grip, all three of them plunged through, crashing on the ground in a confused heap.

Raphael, who had landed on top, quickly got up and then immediately found that he was dizzy. A hand flew up to his forehead. "Ugh," he growled, wondering what had happened, exactly. How had Alister managed to phase through a barrier that was normally as thick as a wall for anyone who attempted it? It did not make sense!

"Crikey," Valon moaned, getting up as well. "How did you do that, Alister? You got us through the Seal of Orichalcos, and as a bonus you gave me a killer headache!" He took a step, stumbled, and bumped into Raphael. That was not an experience he wanted to repeat. He had felt as though he was passing through a barrier consisting of the very essence of evil itself. His entire being felt chilled.

Alister shuddered, pulling himself into a sitting position. _Strange,_ he thought, _but I don't have a headache. I don't feel much of anything at all, actually._ "The Orichalcos," he muttered then, looking up at his friends. "It sensed that I was poisoned by it. That's why it dragged me in. I suppose that the only reason the two of you were able to come along was because you grabbed onto me." He supposed that it was also possible that it was because they had all been infected with the evil force at one point, but if that was truly the case, then why had Valon been unable to pass through the barrier when he tried to earlier? And why did he and Raphael have headaches while Alister did not? The lanky man had a very bad feeling about what would be the eventual result of this experience.

Slowly he rose as well. "Let's look for the nearest entrance," he said, examining the approximate yard-length of ground that was also in the Orichalcos's grasp.

Valon frowned. "It sounds like you might have another problem on your hands, chum," he announced, highly troubled by what Alister had said. When he looked at Raphael, he could see that the blonde man felt the same way. This would not bring about anything good for their poor friend.

Alister shook his head. "Let's worry about it later," he said grouchily, finding an open doorway. "We have other things we need to do right now, don't you agree?" He did not bother to look back and see if his friends were following. Instead he simply wandered right inside the building, leaving his friends to catch up.

Raphael grunted, his blue eyes narrowing. "Yeah," he said darkly, "'other things.'" He clenched a fist. "Come on," he told Valon. "He shouldn't get too far ahead of us." _He's probably gonna be a whole lot worse before we can even get out of here!_ Raphael felt horrified at the thought, especially since Alister had already had a breakdown earlier in the evening. What would so much contact with this Orichalcos force do to him when he had already been poisoned? The blue-eyed man felt his stomach knot as he became certain that they would find out.

Valon was already storming off purposely, heading in the direction in which Alister had gone. "Don't worry, Raph," he called back. "I don't have any intentions of letting him get out of our sight." _We're gonna find a way to help you, Alister. I swear it! Even if I havta die trying, we'll find a way!_


	9. The Confrontation

**Chapter Eight**

Alister wandered down the corridor coldly, his gray eyes void of emotion. He encountered several guards along the way, but every one of them quickly went out of commission after the redhead found the proper place to press on the backs of their necks, rendering them senseless. He worked quietly and with the stealth of a ninja, and with any luck, none of the sentries realized what had hit them.

But a shiver went up his spine as he realized how blank he felt inside. It was almost as if the exposure to the Orichalcos had drained him of any feelings at all. The fact disturbed him highly and he wondered if that was only the next step in going absolutely insane. He supposed, on the other hand, that it could be a subconscious mental defense against the Seal's power. Once he had realized why he was being pulled into the turquoise pillar, he had braced himself for whatever evil the Orichalcos would try to unleash. Maybe not feeling anything at all was how he would have to fight it.

As he approached a room to the right, however, he had to swiftly dodge a flying high-heeled shoe when it was thrown at him. He regarded it in a blasé way before turning and looking in the doorway. "If you're Hilda Laurent, you don't have to worry," he said calmly, though he could not yet see anyone. "I'm not going to hurt you." He glanced about, finally catching sight of an eye peering at him through the crack between the open door and the hinge.

The eye blinked. "I remember you!" Hilda's unmistakable, aristocratic voice cried out. "You're the hoodlum Raphael befriended!" And, she observed, he still dressed in the same strange way that he had when she had first met him. Still, she supposed that she would rather see him than the Doom Reborn warriors. At least . . . she certainly _hoped_ that Alister was not involved with them. But how could she truly be certain? Slowly she stepped out from where she had been concealed behind the door.

Alister studied her torn clothes and ruffled hair with his continuing blasé expression. "I wouldn't put it like that," he answered, "since I'm not a 'hoodlum,' but yes—Raphael and I are friends. He and Valon should be following me in about now." He crossed his arms. Getting into the building—once the barrier was passed—had been too easy. Undoubtedly Doom Reborn had something sinister planned. Alister was not about to assume an arrogant air and decide that the entire organization was stupid. That attitude was illogical and would only set himself and his friends up for disaster. No, Doom Reborn was cunning and cruel, its members still under the charismatic spell from the original Doom. And since they believed that the end justified the means, they were extremely dangerous, yet pitiable people.

Hilda limped out of the room, looking exasperated, and went to her shoe. Carefully and precisely she forced it onto her foot, just as the other two bikers arrived. Again she had mixed feelings about this. Surely they would get her away from here, would they not? If Raphael would befriend such "hooligans," after all, he would help his own flesh and blood.

She frowned, the memory of her rejection of him coming into her mind. She had been the one to tell Raphael that as long as he refused to accept his wealthy heritage and insisted on dressing as a punk, he was no longer welcome at their house and she would no longer consider him as being part of the family. That had been so long ago, when she only been thirteen—and Raphael, sixteen—but she had meant every word. She had not been able to understand why he had turned down her father's offer to live in their home. To her, it had been a most generous offer and Raphael had been ungrateful not to accept. When she had demanded an explanation, he had only regarded her with a melancholy expression and had said that maybe she would understand in time. Now, eight years later, she still did not.

"Hey, Alister!" Valon called, running over and interrupting Hilda's train of thought. He and Raphael had seen the hallway of unconscious sentries, but neither was certain whether to be disturbed or relieved by the sight. Valon was definitely relieved to see that Alister was safe, but he was not certain which personality his friend was currently hosting. He did take immediate notice that the Seal of Orichalcos symbol was not gracing the gray-eyed man's forehead, and his fears were somewhat alleviated by that fact, though he knew that Alister could be taken over at any given time. "What the heck did you do!"

"They're not seriously hurt," Alister responded, without even bothering to ask what Valon was referring to. "And as you can see, I found Hilda."

As Raphael caught up as well, he observed his cousin quietly. He frowned upon seeing her ripped dress and wild hair and wondered exactly what the Doom Reborn warriors had done to her. Hilda was not one of his favorite people, but they had been close once and it had badly hurt Raphael when he had first returned from the island and Hilda had rejected him. He was about to speak and ask if she was alright when he was cut off by Hans' voice from the opposite end of the corridor.

"Congratulations on actually getting in," the young man remarked. "Of course you couldn't have managed it if your friend wasn't poisoned by the Orichalcos. I left the barrier up so that you could discover that he's the only one of the three of you who could pass through it unaided." _And naturally, it will do some damage to his soul, as well—but he won't realize that for a while._

Hilda gaped at Hans' words. "Raphael! What is he talking about!" she demanded. _What poison? What barrier? And what was the Orichalcos! _That was a complete mystery to her, but from Raphael's expression, he knew exactly what Hans was referring to. This confused Hilda all the more, and in her mind, it reinforced her distorted view of Raphael as a hoodlum.

Raphael ignored Hilda for the time being. "I came to set your hostage free," he said coldly to Hans, "but your lackey told me that she wouldn't be allowed to go unless I gave you some information in return." He regarded the other man with one of his infamous piercing gazes. The Orichalcos was glowing brightly on Hans' forehead. Raphael realized all too well that he had given in to his dark soul. It would be hard to free him from the dark force, but Raphael knew it could be done. He still felt sorry for Hans, even though he was also growing more and more angry with him as well. But because he knew that he himself had once been under the Orichalcos's influence, he did not see how he could completely blame Hans for what was happening. The Orichalcos itself was largely responsible.

"That's right," Hans confirmed. "Are you willing to comply?"

Instantly Valon took on an air of shock and disbelief. "Come on, Raph!" he yelled. "You know you can't. You know what'll happen if you do. And heck, you didn't even give out info when I was taken! Why would you do it now!" He glared so harshly at Hilda that the woman wondered if he was going to hurt her. She did not doubt that he would be capable of it. But she was determined not to show that she was concerned. She glared fiercely at the spunky Australian.

Raphael growled and pushed Valon out of the way, though he did it gently. "The situation is a lot different now," he answered. "The Seal of Orichalcos is involved. Alister's been poisoned. We don't want things to get even worse, do we?" He allowed his voice to rise as he turned to face Hans. "I don't want Hilda to get hurt, too."

Alister frowned at him. "When Valon was taken, we determined that if we gave the culprits what they wanted, the entire world would be destroyed, with all of us included," he announced, his gray eyes flashing. "The situation isn't different now, Raphael. If anything, it's worse. You know you can't give them information! There has to be another way to get Hilda out of here."

Hilda listened to all three of them with a certain confusion. Alister's and Valon's reactions were what she had expected, but Raphael's was not. Would he truly give them the information they wanted in order to free her? She did not understand what the knowledge was that they wanted from her cousin, but according to his two cronies, it was rather serious. She frowned, studying them, and wondered if the remark about the world being destroyed was a bit of an exaggeration. After all, how could any information that Raphael possessed be that dangerous? She believed Raphael to be a hoodlum, not a mad scientist.

Now Raphael grabbed Alister by the front of his shirt, pulling the younger man toward him. "There isn't another way. And maybe you don't remember, but when that other thing happened with Valon, he was beaten half to death and you were excessively shot before falling off that cliff! Valon and I thought for weeks that you were dead. I'm not gonna go through that again, Alister." He released his friend and turned back to Hans. "We made a mistake last time. I'm not gonna make the same one over again."

"You're crazy, Raph!" Valon shot back immediately.

Hans watched them all carefully, studying each reaction. It all seemed logical and in character, judging from what he knew about each of them. Raphael would naturally not want to do anything again to endanger his loved ones, especially after the heart-wrenching experience he and Valon had endured in the past—and since Raphael had lost his biological family in a shipwreck. And it was also natural that Valon and Alister would recognize what would happen if the information was given over and that they would try to talk their friend out of it. But still . . . even though it all _seemed_ to make sense, were things truly as they seemed?

He tilted his head to the side, listening to the soft whisperings of the Orichalcos within his mind. _"They are lying,"_ it told him firmly, and it would know, of course, since part of its force was infused with Alister. _"They wish to trick you. Do not listen to them!"_ And Hans narrowed his eyes, certain that what he was being told was the truth. The Orichalcos did not lie, after all. It always spoke the truth, revealing whether a person was pure of heart or else evil.

He looked back up, putting his full attention into what the bikers were saying. Now Valon had placed himself firmly in Raphael's way, apparently refusing to allow the older man to get past him. Raphael looked down at him, his expression both annoyed and upset. Alister stood to the side, but from his furious, flashing, gray eyes, he was willing to join Valon in attempting to hold Raphael back.

"Sorry, mate," the Australian said in a level tone, "but you're not gettin' past me so easy! If you wanna destroy the world by givin' up info that should stay buried, then you're gonna havta actually move me out of the way. And I know you don't wanna hurt me." His heart was racing wildly. How long would they be able to keep this up? And was the Doom Reborn warrior even taking stock in any of it? He had not spoken since they had began their ruse.

Raphael regarded Valon with a tormented expression. "Valon . . . I'm trying to stop anything from happening to you or Alister again," he said. "You know I'm not gonna hurt you. I can still give the information out from where I'm standing right now." He reached out, about to pretend to forcefully shove Valon out of his way. "But this is for your own good."

As Raphael's hand was in midair, and as Alister was moving forward to intercede, Hans abruptly walked forward, coming to stand in back of Valon. "There's no need for violence," he said smoothly, gripping the Australian's shoulders harshly. "It would be wasted, anyway. The Orichalcos saw through your scheme!" He felt a certain triumph when he saw Alister's and Raphael's stunned countenances. They had not expected that. But they had no concept of the Orichalcos and what it could truly do! How could they, when they, along with their brunette friend, had betrayed Dartz? They could never understand!

Hilda simply stared. The Orichalcos again? But what was it? She found herself becoming very uneasy. This was unlike any situation she had ever been involved with before. Was this organization some sort of strange cult? _Oh why did I have to get into this! What's Raphael been doing with his life!_

Raphael's eyes narrowed once he was over the initial shock. _I should've known it wouldn't work,_ he snarled inwardly. _But what now?_ They would not be set free until they gave the information that Doom Reborn was seeking. More than likely, drastic measures would have to be taken. _Wait a minute. . . ._

"If your Orichalcos is so all-knowing," he said coldly, while Valon shoved Hans away from him, "then how come it can't just tell you the information you need? Why do you even need us?" He motioned for Hilda to come over near them. They might simply have to make a run for it, and if they did, they would need to make sure that she was not left behind.

Hans sighed. "It just doesn't work that way," he answered. "The Orichalcos only guides and influences us on certain things, but it doesn't run our lives for us. You should know that already, Raphael. You and your cronies were familiar with the Orichalcos for years, after all." His eyes narrowed. "And now you've turned against everything you fought for! You deserve to suffer!" His feelings of betrayal were making themselves known. He had tried to keep it all locked in his own heart, but now he could not any longer. "That's why I'm doing this, you know. I want the information from you, of course, but actually that is taking a backseat right now to my desire to avenge Dartz and kill you!" Now a greenish glow was obviously able to be seen all around the man, as an aura. The Orichalcos's power was growing stronger within him. If he could not control himself, he was liable to send out another forceful blast that would harm everyone there. And this time, Raphael grimly knew, they might not simply regain consciousness and be able to leave. Hans meant it when he said he wanted to kill him. 

Hilda was aghast. "What does he mean, Raphael!" she demanded. "TELL ME! What does he mean? What were you fighting for? What's caused this man to have such an intense hatred of you?" She came over to him and the others, her eyes narrowed and her voice rising in vexation. "What did you DO!"

Raphael clenched a fist. "This isn't the time, Hilda," he practically snapped.

"Yeah!" Valon added. "I mean, we're all kinda in a life threatening situation and you want Raph to start tellin' you his life story?" He could not hold his tongue any longer. "Maybe if you were closer to him, you'd already know all this stuff! But it's your fault that the two of you drifted apart from each other! You're the one who wanted him outta your life!" He, frankly, could not stand Hilda at all, especially after the way she always treated his best friends. Valon had only met her once, and very briefly at that, and he had not been impressed. High-society types generally disgusted him because of how they looked down on those who were not as wealthy. Hilda seemed to be even worse than some of them.

Immediately Hilda slapped him. "You have no right to talk about things that you have no concept of, you Australian street urchin!" she screamed, her voice echoing down the halls.

Now all three bikers were furious with her. "Valon didn't do anything to you," Alister said in a very low, dangerously calm tone. "All he did was point out the truth. Is it too much for you to accept?"

Raphael grabbed Hilda's wrist tightly. "Let's get one thing straight," he growled. "As long as you're with us, and especially when we're actually trying to help you, don't you dare insult Alister or Valon. If you want to continue berating me for what you think I did to you and your parents, that's one thing. But Alister and Valon have done nothing to you." His grip did not loosen as he forced the woman to look up at him. "It's not as if we had to come out here. We could have let them kill you. If the situation was reversed, you'd probably feel that way about me. Fortunately for you, I'm not like you, Hilda—and neither are they." This was too much to deal with. He had always been forced to put up with Hilda's constant complaining any time the two of them were together, but he was not going to allow her to insult—and even physically assault!—his friends. That was crossing the line.

Hilda glared at him, not answering, and struggled to pull herself free of his strong grip. "Let me go, Raphael!" she cried, but did not offer an apology for her actions.

Hans shook his head. "Why shouldn't she know what was happening to you through all those years, Raphael?" he said. "I doubt that you're afraid to tell her, are you, since the both of you already decided to go your separate ways? Maybe you think she wouldn't understand. But you're probably right—I don't think she would. How could she possibly understand about purifying the world, when she's part of the problem!" He jerked a finger in her direction. "She is part of what has to be eliminated in order to restore the world to its former glory! Her kind can have no part in that!" As his speech continued, his voice rang out with increasing force and the Orichalcos aura around him grew steadily stronger.

Hilda's feeling of unease only burned all the more intensely. "That man is insane, Raphael!" she burst out, obviously highly distressed. "Not even you could have been like that!" Raphael only looked at her stonily, and again she struggled to free herself. "Please, let's just get out of here!" And after that, she doubted that she wanted to see any of them again. Just the mere thought that Raphael had been involved with such a plan made her extremely alarmed and anxious to get away from him.

Raphael started at Hilda's last sentence. It was rare that she would ever say anything such as "please." For her to do so now had to mean that she was understandably uneasy and agitated. And he agreed that they needed to get away. The problem was, he was not quite certain how they were going to accomplish that. Doom Reborn was certainly not going to let them simply walk out. And Hans looked ready to unleash a blast of energy upon them any moment.

"Hey, Alister," Valon remarked quietly, tapping his red-haired friend on the shoulder, "I think we've got a big problem." He indicated Hans. "Maybe we should run now and work the rest out later." After all, if the same thing happened that had occurred when Hans had broken into their home and had let loose with his anger, fueled by the Orichalcos's power, then they were all in for it.

Alister's lip curled in frustration when he saw. "I'm not one for running," he answered, and knew that Valon was not, either, "but in this case I think we'll have to. All of you go on ahead and I'll catch up." He looked at Hans suspiciously, watching his eyes grow wild with hatred. He was so filled with anger that it would not surprise Alister if he unleashed his fury before all of them were able to get far enough away.

But Raphael would have none of it. "I'm not letting anything happen to you!" he snapped, finally letting go of Hilda in order to grip Alister's shoulder. "You're already suffering. The last thing you need is to be attacked by his blast and taken prisoner! Then we'd be right back where we started from!"

Alister did not answer, but in his mind he wondered if dying to save his friends now would be better than suffering with the Orichalcos and perhaps even killing his friends later on. But no—he could not think like that. He clenched his fists tightly. He would not let the Orichalcos corrupt him!

"That's right!" Valon agreed, grabbing Alister's arm. "And what if the blast was even stronger than last time! Then . . . then you'd probably kick the bucket for real!" He gave the older man a shake. "And we're not lettin' that happen, you got it!" Before Alister could answer, Valon was starting to drag him off, breaking into a run as Hans' anger became all the more obvious. Valon was determined not to let anything happen to one of the only friends he had. Alister and Raphael both meant everything to him, and he would not let them get hurt if he could help it.

"Those hoodlums actually care about each other, don't they," Hilda muttered to herself as she stumbled along after Raphael, tripping over her shoes. The high heels did not make for good footwear during an escape, and at last, realizing the problem, Raphael simply tossed Hilda over his shoulder and continued to run.

"None of you are going to leave here alive!" Hans burst out, the entire warehouse rumbling with the force of his hatred mixed with the Orichalcos. "Every last one of you will die and be buried here! I swear it by my own blood!" As he spoke these words, a blast of power was sent forth—and met another, equally powerful blast that canceled them both out and sent Hans stumbling backwards.

Everyone stopped and turned around in stunned shock. Alister was facing Hans, the Orichalcos energy emanating from his being and giving him his own aura. His gray eyes were dark and furious, but there was no symbol upon his forehead. In fact, as he realized what had just happened, a confused and almost worried expression came over him. He had not even tried to do that! How had it happened? Was the Orichalcos getting more of a control over him, or was he so filled with its power that it was releasing itself at will? Or . . . maybe the Orichalcos was helping him. Yes . . . . Maybe it was not always wicked.

No! What was he thinking? _I'm allowing it to start influencing me!_ he realized in alarm. _This has to stop._

Abruptly Hans let out an anguished cry, his eyes widened as he began gasping for breath and clutching at his heart. Again appalled, the quartet stared at him, wondering what on earth was happening. At last Raphael set Hilda down, convinced that this was not a trick, and started to move forward.

"He acts like he's having a heart attack!" the blonde announced, his eyes narrowed. Just as he reached Hans, the boy toppled over in his arms and lay still. His last thoughts were filled with hatred, but also sadness. _I didn't want it to end this way. . . ._ The Orichalcos symbol faded from his forehead as the stone around his neck—a new, complete stone and not the one he had stabbed Alister with—shattered. Raphael was careful to make sure that the fragments did not cut him.

Valon gaped at the scene. "What's going on, Raph!" he cried. Raphael did not answer, as he was busy attempting to find some sign of life within the boy's form.

Alister's eyes were wide in horror. Had the force of the blast he had created caused that? Had he actually killed someone with the dark power? A wave of dizziness swept over him at that thought and he stumbled back, clutching his head. It was trying to get out again. . . . It was trying to take control of his mind and his sanity!

His eyes narrowed. _I was only protecting my loved ones,_ he told himself firmly as he struggled for control. _Even if I did cause him to die just now, I wasn't trying to. I was only trying to stop him from killing Raphael and Valon. I couldn't have allowed that. I never could have allowed that._ He knew it was true, though it did not remove the certain guilt he felt. After all, the Orichalcos reacted to anger and hatred. If Alister had been unleashing hatred at that moment, he was no better than Hans himself.

Without warning a female voice cut through the air like a knife. Everyone looked to attempt discovering the source of it, but they could not. It was everywhere and nowhere all at once, but each one of them could hear it clearly—and the words sent a chill through each one of them.

"No," it announced sharply, "Alister did not cause that pathetic fool to die. I did, because he was disobeying my orders. I am the true head of Doom Reborn, but you will find that I am not like my predecessor. Failures and disobedience are not tolerated by me!"


	10. The Shower

**Chapter Nine**

After the unknown woman's shocking announcement, she fell silent once again, leaving the foursome to ponder over her words and what they could mean. Who was she? Why was she the head of Doom Reborn? If she was even more harsh than Dartz, what was it going to be like to attempt defeating her? And had she truly destroyed Hans' life? Alister was admittedly relieved to know it had not been he himself who had caused it, but still he had to wonder how that woman had brought it about. How was it possible to kill from a distance if weapons were not used? Hans truly had behaved as if he had been suffering a heart attack.

Raphael let out an angry snarl as he laid the young man's body atop an oblong crate and again tried to examine him. But it was no use. He had to concede that Hans was dead. He felt a certain, familiar disgust take hold of him as he realized this. Here was one more life that Dartz had shattered, albeit belatedly. True, Dartz had not delivered the fatal strike, but he had poisoned the boy's mind with his philosophies until Hans had been completely consumed by them. Raphael could have been Hans, had he not been rescued from the darkness in his heart and the Orichalcos. They were probably actually not so different, a fact that both alarmed and saddened him.

"Is he dead, Raph?" Valon spoke finally, bringing Raphael out of his reverie. The brunette regarded Hans with trepidation. He had tried to kill all of them just a moment ago. Maybe this was a trick. Something told him that it was not, however. He was laying too still . . . and he had been in obvious pain a moment before.

He looked over at Alister, remembering the redhead's abrupt action from a moment before. Valon was still trying to get over the shock of seeing Alister let loose with a powerful charge of Orichalcos energy. _That Doom Reborn bloke could've killed us if his energy had hit us, but what's this gonna do to Alister now, now that he retaliated like that? _He did not know about Alister's duel with Seto on the jet, where the gray-eyed man had lost control of his emotions at least twice, causing immense damage to the airplane both times because of the Orichalcos's powers. If Valon had known, certainly the brunette would have been even more concerned. Alister was usually so calm and collected and rarely ever lost his temper. In fact, earlier that night, when he had wildly attacked the Doom Reborn warriors—and had shoved Valon—it had been the first time Valon had ever seen Alister truly lose all control. He had meant it when he had told Alister that it had frightened him. Never again did Valon wish to see that happen to his friend.

"Yeah," Raphael said now, "he's dead." He clenched a fist tightly as he straightened up. It seemed so unfair, that the Orichalcos was still claiming victims, after all this time. But then, if the Orichalcos symbolized the darkness within the hearts of mankind, then its force would forever continue to cause people to fall, whether they were actually poisoned by an ancient stone or infused with the power in any other way, or not. It was a rather depressing, yet realistic, thought.

And he still did not even understand why Hans had loathed him so very much. Why him any more than Alister or Valon? It had been obvious from the boy's speech that Raphael had been the main target all along. _What did I do, specifically? All of us left the Doom organization, not just me._ And he did not even remember meeting Hans before, though he tried so very hard to recall any possible encounter. It was completely perplexing to him on what association they had experienced before, if any. Surely they must have met somewhere! Hans would not turn up out of thin air to torment someone who did not have some sort of personal connection to him, would he? That would not even make sense.

Alister let out a shaking breath. He might not have been responsible after all, for which he was grateful, but that did not lighten the weight upon his shoulders. He had still released the Orichalcos's power, without even consciously realizing that he was doing so. It could happen again, only with much more serious consequences. He was not looking forward to the time when that would happen. As it was, he was feeling a certain, unwelcome irritation welling within his heart at the moment. He wanted it to go away, but instead it was only increasing. Inwardly he screamed.

Now Raphael looked up and around at the high ceiling of the warehouse, searching for any sign of the woman who had spoken a moment before. His attention had been devoted to Hans while he had hoped that there was still a chance for the boy to be alive, but now that it seemed there was not, his mind was focused on finding who had spoken. "Who are you!" he yelled gruffly. "You've got this person's blood on your hands!" But no reply came.

"Whoever it is, is probably on her way down to murder us all!" Hilda burst out, completely flabbergasted and wanting more than anything to leave. "If the person's dead, let's just leave his body and get out of here! Why worry about him anyway!" she added as an afterthought. "He tried to murder us all! And why did your hoodlum friend have the same turquoise glow as the dead man!" Her questions were all suddenly spilling out of her mouth due to her frustration and distress with the entire situation. This was all madness! She had been abducted by an organization that wanted to destroy the world, her cousin and his friends had come to rescue her and she had found out that they had all been involved in said organization, a member had a grudge against Raphael, Alister had attacked with a burst of strange energy . . . and now the member was dead and a disembodied female voice was claiming responsibility for the crime. . . . It really was not surprising that the socialite wanted to leave as quickly as possible.

"You know," Alister said suddenly, "I can hear you. You could simply ask me, instead of asking Raphael while I'm standing here." _And yet . . . I don't know what to say or how to explain why it happened. I hate what's happening to me! I want it to stop, before I hurt someone I care about. . . ._ Hilda ignored him.

Raphael growled. "Once upon a time, that could've been me laying there," he answered Hilda darkly, voicing his thoughts as he turned away from the form. What tragedy had befallen Hans and caused him to want to join Doom? Did he have any loved ones who were missing him? The blonde man shook his head slowly. If so, they had lost him ages ago. The fact that his body was dead now was only a final confirmation, complementing the fact that his heart had already perished to the Orichalcos.

Valon swallowed hard. "Do you think we're gonna be able to get out of here, Raph?" he asked then, looking around uneasily as Raphael came back over to them. "It's kinda odd that the sheila would just let us go like that." He frowned, having the feeling that all of them were being spied on. He hated that feeling. It could be anyone at all who was doing the spying, and usually the party did not have good intentions. If that mysterious woman was watching them now, he was certain that her intentions were wicked.

"You are not needed for the purpose that Hans wanted you for." The voice came again, just as firm and just as deadly as it had the first time. "All four of you will be set free . . . this time. I have other ways of obtaining my information." Then there was silence once again and it became obvious that the woman would not speak further.

Raphael was still not pleased, however. He did not trust the person, nor was he anxious to know what her "other ways" consisted of. "Let's go, before something else goes wrong," he said flatly, deciding that Valon's question had been more or less answered.

True to her word, the mysterious woman removed the Orichalcos barrier so that they could depart without Alister having to interact with it again. She watched as the quartet fled, her eyes narrowed and her expression thoughtful. She knew that many of her underlings would not understand why she was doing this. But the fact was that Hans' methods annoyed her to no end.

"Such mediocrity," she murmured. "He was not only thinking too small, but he was acting on a personal grudge and not for the good of Doom Reborn!" She was furious that Hans had used the sacred Seal of Orichalcos for such reasons. When she enacted any plan, it was always something that would help bring about the purification of the world. And right now, she had plans for the former Doom soldiers. She did not want them killed, because they would be useful later on, which was why she was letting them go.

* * *

As they finally arrived back outside the warehouse, the bikers discovered that their motorcycles were still where they had left them, much to their relief. Hilda was not so thrilled, however.

"I'm going to have to ride on that?" she cried, pointing randomly at one of the vehicles, which turned out to be Valon's.

The Australian smirked, unable to resist the urge to tease her. "Aw, we'll go easy on ya," he replied before Alister or Raphael had the chance to say anything. "And I'll try to remember not to do any wheelies if you ride with me." He then climbed on and revved the engine, demonstrating by riding in a circle around the others and then sending the motorcycle upon the back wheel. Raphael rubbed the bridge of his nose with a sigh. Alister crossed his arms. And Hilda gaped in horror.

"Raphael!" she wailed.

The blonde man shook his head wearily. "You'll ride with me, Hilda," he announced, going toward his own, green motorcycle and swinging his leg over the side.

"Can't I just send for my driver?" Hilda protested, even as she lowered herself down onto the vehicle. She knew she would have to travel with her cousin and his friends, whether she wanted to or not. Shakily she accepted the helmet when Raphael handed it to her, then wrapped her arms firmly around the man's waist. "I just hope a reporter doesn't see this," she whined, closing her eyes as she admitted that she was frightened. She had never been on a motorcycle before, and she was not extremely pleased to begin now. _Will my life ever be normal again?_ "Everyone would think I was turning into a hoodlum!" Raphael merely growled in response.

As he started the engine and rode off, Hilda tried to keep her mind on other things. When they had been children, Raphael had always looked out for her—but that had been before he had been shipwrecked on that island and had returned completely different. Now, as she was embracing Raphael and trying not to think about the fact that she was riding a motorized, two-wheeled vehicle and that she could fall off, some of the childhood memories resurfaced. But she refused to dwell on them for very long. She had changed as well, and she and Raphael would never be able to get along the way they once had. That did not mean, however, that she was not grateful for the rescue. _Just as long as nothing else weird happens. . . ._

"So, Raph!" Valon yelled abruptly, pulling up alongside the older man, along with Alister. "Where are we goin', anyway?"

Raphael realized that he did not know, though he was certain that Hilda did not want to go with them to their house. And frankly, he was not sure that he wanted her there, either. He could just imagine all the complaints that she would come up with.

"Just take me to my home!" the woman begged. "PLEASE!" _I've seen enough strange things to last a lifetime! And what if that redhead loses his temper again and blasts someone, namely me?_

Raphael grunted. "Fine."

* * *

The trio arrived home nearly an hour later, after safely returning Hilda to her house in a suburb of Domino City. The woman had remained flippant and rude up to when she had said goodbye and had left her rescuers standing outside. Valon was annoyed, as was Raphael, though the blonde had not actually expected anything different. Alister gave no visible reaction, but he was growing increasingly rude toward his two friends. He did not want to, but it was happening anyway. They understood that it was the Orichalcos's power talking, and they tried not to take things personally, but still Valon was losing patience.

"Just shut up already!" he yelled at last, after an obnoxious comment Alister made as they were going up the walk to their house.

For one moment Alister's eyes cleared. "I would," he answered, "if I was able to." Then Valon felt bad. He knew Alister was not deliberately trying to be frustrating. Alister was probably more vexed at himself than Valon or Raphael was.

Raphael, who was walking in front of them, tried to ignore their banter. It had been a long day and night and he was exhausted. _And nothing's really been solved,_ he thought to himself. _I'm sure we weren't set free because the woman took pity on us. What does she have in mind? And how much worse is Alister going to get before it's all over?_ All he wanted right now was to get some sleep. Hopefully, he thought, he would wake up with some sort of idea on what could be done, though he doubted it.

He frowned when he noticed that the front door was ajar. _This doesn't look right,_ he growled inwardly. _I know I locked the door when Alister and I left earlier. . . ._ All manner of images of what could be beyond the door danced through his mind. Clenching a fist, he looked back to the others. "We might have visitors," he announced grimly. "Be quiet and pay attention in case we suddenly have to fight someone off."

"What the heck?" Valon cried, narrowing his eyes. But Raphael did not answer and instead, he eased the door open slowly. As the Australian stared at the scene before him, his mouth dropped open. "Holy moly. . . . It looks like a tornado ripped right through here!" It looked to him as though every piece of furniture in the living room had been overturned. The couch was upsidedown. Lamps were laying on the floor, and Valon could make out broken glass scattered about. The telephone had been pulled from the wall and was also on the floor, the receiver flung away from its cradle. Chairs were laying on their backs, their front legs up in the air. And the computer remained untouched. Obviously this had not been the work of ordinary burglars who were looking for expensive items to purloin.

Raphael looked around angrily, feeling a certain worry come over him. Where was Liu? He could not see her anywhere. What if whoever had done this had taken her with them? Or worse—what if she was still here, but hurt? Carefully he picked his way over the fallen furniture, calling for his cat.

Alister came in last, shutting and locking the door behind him. "Someone could still be in here," he said darkly. "They might have heard us come and hid in a closet." He could appreciate Raphael's concern for his cat, but right now he felt it the first priority to make certain that the vandals who had done this were not still in the house. Stealthily and precisely he began searching through each of the rooms, looking under and behind other, still-standing furniture and opening closets. Valon looked in the basement. All three of them came up empty-handed.

"It looks like we're alone in here," Valon announced as he and Alister met Raphael back in the living room. The Australian bit his lip, watching as the blonde man got down on the floor and looked into the triangular-shaped opening made by the back of the couch, the arm, and the floor. "Can't you find the cat, Raph?" He felt badly for his friend if he could not. He knew Raphael loved his cat. And he had to admit that he would miss Liu as well, if she was gone. She was unusually friendly for a cat, but Valon liked that much better than a cat who was angry and scratched people all the time, or one that was completely unsocial and constantly hid.

Raphael was not listening to him. He had spotted gleaming blue eyes in the darkness of the space. Liu was in there, but she seemed to be absolutely petrified. He prayed that it was only that and that she was not injured. "Come here, Liu," he called softly. "It's alright now. You can come out." The cat meowed in response, as if to say _"Why did you leave me here when mean people came in!"_ At last she stood and came running out, cuddling close to Raphael. He held the feline gently, relieved that she was safe. Liu purred low, soon beginning her kneading routine of affection to show that he was forgiven. Raphael allowed this, shaking his head in amusement.

Valon grinned a bit, then sobered. "What idiot did this?" he cried, gesturing around the room. "And what did they want?"

"I think I have the answer," Alister announced, producing a piece of paper that he had found taped to the bathroom mirror. Both of the others turned to look. None were pleased with what they saw.

Where did you take our son? If you don't bring him back, we'll make certain to get out a court order for your immediate arrests on the grounds that you are keeping him from us!

Valon stared at the note, looking as though he wanted to burn a hole through it. "They trashed the place because of that?" he yelled indignantly. "Well, I've had enough! They're the ones up to no good!" He stood up, eyes flashing, and looked as though he wanted to kick or punch something—or someone. "I hate them both!" he screamed. This was all too much. It had been a long, wearying excursion, and the last thing Valon wanted to come back to was this.

Raphael narrowed his eyes darkly. "We could file a complaint against them for what they've done tonight," he said slowly, "but unless we have proof of their atrocities against you, Valon, I doubt we can prosecute them for beating and selling you when you were a child." He stood up, still holding Liu, and looked down at the tormented boy in front of him. He was furious at the Paltridges, and he could tell that Alister was, as well, even though he was trying to conceal his emotions to prevent the Orichalcos from taking over again. Raphael would love to make certain that they could not bother Valon anymore. And he would also like to know what they wanted with him now. Whatever it was, he knew it could not be good.

"I don't like the police much, either," Valon mumbled, messing his hair up even more than it already was. "They'd probably take my parents' side and say that we wrote the note to frame 'em." He spoke bitterly, walking forward as if to go upstairs. Finding that a chair was in his way, he glared at it viciously and kicked it aside before climbing up the stairs and entering his room. _They hate me just as much as I hate them. Why'd they come back? Why won't they leave me alone and let me live my life?_

He flung himself onto his bed, glaring furiously at the quilt. Remembering that his Linkin Park CD was still in the CD player, he decided to listen to the rest of it. Maybe that would help relieve some of his stress.

* * *

Raphael sighed, letting Valon go. "We have to try something," he said to Alister. He did not trust the police very much either, but he hoped that if they could find Gabrielle, she would believe and help them in their quest to get Valon's parents brought to justice. And he was outraged at this latest stunt that they had pulled. What were they thinking? Did they honestly believe that their victims would not call the police and that they would be frightened into cooperating with them?

"I know," Alister answered. Feeling the Orichalcos tugging at his sanity once again, he turned away, heading for the stairs. "But I think I'll let you call the police, if you're intending to." Knowing that they needed to leave the furniture as it was in order for the police officers to examine things, he did not offer to straighten the room up. Once the police left, he planned that he would do exactly that—if he was still sane at that time.

Raphael watched him sadly. "Don't stop fighting," he growled, though he knew, of course, that Alister would not. "I'm here if you need to talk."

Alister nodded but did not speak as he went upstairs and took refuse in his room. He did not want to burden Raphael with the tales of his inner struggle. And truth be told, he was growing afraid of himself. He had almost completely lost control earlier, when he had attacked the warriors and then had viciously shoved Valon away. Then there was the unexplained beam of energy he had sent out against Hans'. Maybe his original plan, to distance himself from the other two for a while, was the best idea. He would not move out of the house, but maybe he should stay mostly in his room.

He looked down at the quilt blankly as he sat on the bed. "I'm sorry," he whispered aloud, thinking of his friends. "This shouldn't be happening." Furiously he clenched a fist, just wanting it all to stop.

* * *

The next two weeks passed by, with surprisingly relative peace. Gabrielle had tried to put out an arrest warrant for the Paltridges, for breaking and entering, vandalism, and harassment. She believed the bikers when they had told her about what Valon's parents did to him in the past, but she confirmed that there was not actually anything that could be done about that angle without proof. She was searching diligently for anything that might be of help, as were the trio themselves. So far, nothing had turned up. Valon could not remember the name of the building where he had been taken, but he did recall that it had been a child slave ring, much to his friends' astonishment and horror.

"Heh," he had said with a weak grin, "I guess it's a good thing I got so sneaky with gettin' out of places, because I got away from there before anything could really happen to me. 'Course . . . that's when Social Services picked me up. . . ." And he had sighed, shaking his head.

Raphael had tried to check into any and all reports of child slave rings in Australia, including ones that had been shut down, but he had not been able to come up with anything conclusive. Alister had concentrated on searching for a bill of sale, but that was equally impossible in their current situation. It would have helped if they could have actually traveled to Australia, they knew, but they did not have the means to do that—nor did any of them feel that it would be safe for Alister to stray far from home.

Alister had kept mostly to himself over the past two weeks, not wanting to witness or hear anything that could trigger the Orichalcos and result in him hurting Valon or Raphael. He was battling it so very hard, but still he was afraid that it was going to win in the end. He could not keep this up forever, and eventually he was certain that the Orichalcos would wrestle control of his body away from him.

On this morning, he woke up fairly early after a restless slumber. He sighed, sitting up slowly and then climbing out of bed for his morning shower. _How long can I contain this darkness in my soul? _he asked himself sadly as he locked the bathroom door a few moments later and stepped into the tub. _This isn't as simple as just not being angry,_ he thought, remembering a conversation with Valon from the previous night._ I've been poisoned. That makes me become angry even when I'm not trying to, and if I already am, it makes it worse._

He let the water beat down upon him as he attempted to relax and simply enjoy the ritual, as he normally did. As the days had gone by, it had become all the harder to control the ancient force. Alister had experienced immense dizziness throughout his struggle, once even blacking out onto the floor in his room. Valon and Raphael did not know about that time and he was content not to tell them. It would only cause them to worry more, and they were both worrying enough as it was. The situation with the Paltridges was making all of them overly stressed. Howard and Martha had actually not been heard from since they had caused the calamity in the bikers' home, and all three were tense, wondering what would happen when they returned, as they were likely to do.

Doom Reborn had not been heard from of late, either. Alister had driven out to the warehouse several days ago when he had been trying to clear his mind, and he had discovered that the building was vacant and any signs of life—or death—were gone. He had to wonder where they had set up their new headquarters. Wherever it was, he doubted that they would find it unless Doom Reborn wanted them to.

Abruptly he gripped at the towel rack, feeling a wave of vertigo pass over him again. He attributed the increasingly frequent dizzy spells to the Orichalcos balking at his resistance. The harder he resisted, the more it forced itself upon him and the more he would become lightheaded and faint. His body simply could not hold out against the cruel forces he was battling.

After a moment he let go of the rod again, convinced that the moment had passed. The next several minutes went by calmly, but then it came on him again, more viciously this time. He hissed in pain, reaching up to clutch at his forehead. As he did so, he suddenly slipped on the slick surface of the tub's floor and felt himself falling. Before he could stop himself, he was striking his head against the hard side. That was the last thing he remembered.


	11. The Evil Unleashed

**Chapter Ten**

Slowly consciousness began to return. His body was aching and he felt rather cold. It also felt as though he was laying on something soft. Carefully, and almost without thinking, he moved his hand up to rub his head. He had just become aware that he had a headache as well as the throbbing throughout his form. A weak moan escaped his lips.

"You okay, chum?"

Blearily Alister tried to crack his eyes open as he recognized Valon's worried voice. He looked up at the brunette through his clouded vision, then closed his eyes again. The light was making them hurt right now, but he hoped that they would be back to normal in the next few minutes. "What happened?" he asked. Vaguely he recalled falling in the bathtub, but nothing beyond that.

Valon leaned back, shaking his head as he watched his close friend struggle to readjust to the conscious world. "'What happened'!" he repeated. "I'll tell you what happened, mate—you slipped and conked your head on the side of the tub! People've gotten offed by doin' that, y'know." He shuddered, remembering how he had heard the loud crash from downstairs and had then realized that something was amiss. Raphael had taken Liu to the veterinarian's office for a regular checkup, so Valon had been alone in dealing with the problem. He had not been happy about the fact, either. He was not used to dealing with such things, especially not rescuing people who took spills in their bathtubs.

Alister grunted. "I locked the door," he said slowly. "How did you even get in?" He opened his eyes again and was relieved as they began to focus without starting to hurt. He was decidedly not relieved to also feel the Orichalcos churning under his skin, however. It seemed to him as though it was pushing ever harder to get out, and that it was becoming increasingly difficult to contain it. If he experienced another breakdown, he was afraid that would cause it to be set free.

Valon shrugged. "You'd better be glad that I used to be pretty good at lock-picking," he told him. "I knocked on the door, but you didn't answer, so I finally had to go in." He frowned, crossing his arms. "You were laying in the tub, and you'd pulled the shower curtain and the rod down with you!" The boy shuddered, not adding that he had at first thought that Alister might be dead from the blow he had taken. "You coulda drowned if I hadn't been here to get you out."

Alister carefully tried to sit up, now discovering that he was wearing a towel around his waist as a kilt. "Raphael isn't here?" he mumbled, feeling the headache coming on once more. He realized, though, that he was not certain whether it was from hitting the tub or from the Orichalcos again pulsating against his defenses and attempting to force itself free. Whatever the reason, though, it was annoying him. After a moment he laid back down.

"Nope." Valon closed one eye. "Just me."

"It must have been hard for you to get me out all by yourself," Alister observed quietly. Valon was shorter and younger than he was, though he also had good muscles and was strong for his age. Still, Alister could not imagine that the task had been easy to accomplish.

Again Valon shrugged. "Eh . . . it wasn't that hard," he answered. "You're really lightweight. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were starvin' yourself or something. You probably weigh less than me!" He studied his red-haired friend, attempting to determine if he was alright. Of course Alister never said so if he was not. The most that could be gotten from him was that he was "fine," whether he truly was or not. And with the Orichalcos still corrupting his heart and soul, he was definitely not fine at this point. The last thing he needed was to have physical injuries as well. He appeared to be alright, however, save for the headache.

Alister draped an arm over his eyes, feeling tired suddenly. Though, he supposed it was natural, since he had not been sleeping well. When he did sleep, it was generally a slumber peppered with dreams of the war or of the Orichalcos controlling him into wreaking havoc throughout the city. "Well . . . thanks," he said finally, and meant it. He was grateful that Valon had gotten him out, even though he doubted that he would have drowned, since the water had mostly been running down the drain.

Valon climbed off the bed, mumbling something that Alister could not catch. Their friendship had been strained lately, much to his frustration. Alister had been struggling with the Orichalcos for so long, and each day it seemed as though it was taking over all the more frequently. Though Alister did not mean to, he still lashed out at Valon often—and even at Raphael at times. Valon was irritated by it, especially since he already had the problem with his parents to worry about, and he generally would snap back at the gray-eyed man. Then they would fall to arguing and Raphael would groan loudly, if he happened to be present. The previous evening, Alister had actually slapped Valon during a disagreement when Valon had demanded to know if Alister could not simply control himself better. Alister had apologized, but the Australian was still annoyed, though he knew he should not be.

He paused at the doorway, looking back to his friend, and then swallowed. "Hey," he spoke at last, and Alister removed his arm from over his eyes in order to look at the boy questioningly. Valon sighed, gripping the doorframe as he spoke. "I'm sorry about last night, Alister. . . . I know you're trying your best. I shouldn't have flown off the handle like I did." _It's hard for me, too. . . . But Raph hasn't fallen apart 'cause of everything. Why can't I be more like him? Why do I always havta get so frustrated? Alister's not trying to hurt us. It just . . . happens._ He leaned forward, letting his forehead rest against the wood. "It's just . . . it's not easy seeing you like this. . . . You're usually so calm and quiet. Really, I actually miss the old you." He grinned weakly. "I didn't think I'd be sayin' it, but it's true."

Alister sighed sadly. "It's not easy for me, either, Valon," he replied, rolling onto his side. But he did not blame Valon for being vexed. Why should the boy not be vexed, when his friend was continually being obnoxious? Alister would be upset if he were in Valon's place. "But you don't need to apologize. I'm the one hurting you, not the other way around. Your exasperation is justified."

Valon looked up sharply. "No it's not!" he cried. "You're fighting some ancient evil that poisoned you, and you've gotta deal with it trying to get control twenty-four seven! I've got no right to make it harder for you." He turned away, clenching a fist. "I've got no right. . . . Don't try to make me feel better, Alister." Without waiting for Alister to answer, the brunette boy walked out of the room and into his own, throwing himself onto his bed and glaring at the floor.

_This is all a big mess,_ he berated silently. _What's happening to us? Even Raph's showing the strain. He's been tryin' to hold out through all of this crazy stuff, but I don't think he's gonna have patience much longer. Heck, I cracked a long time ago. And poor Alister . . . fighting to keep control of his mind. . . ._

He closed his blue eyes tightly. _This is awful! We're probably not even gonna be able to all stay close chums. I can see how this is tearing us all apart. And my parents aren't gonna leave me alone, either._ They had called while Alister had been in the shower. Valon had talked to them both, unwillingly, and had flatly refused to go with them—but he knew they were going to come anyway and try to take him. _I won't go without a fight, though,_ he vowed, _and if they do show up, they've got some criminal charges to answer to.__Alister still has a chance to get better, and I still have a chance to stay with him and Raph. I don't wanna screw any of that up!_

He heard Alister let out a scream from his room as the redhead's latest battle with the Orichalcos became all the more intense. Alister rarely screamed, instead preferring to suffer in as much silence as possible, but when it was becoming especially hard to control, the ancient force would send him into excruciating pain and he would cry out abruptly. Valon hated listening to him when that happened. Alister sounded as if his very heart and soul were being shredded. And Valon was certain that was actually true. He felt helpless, not knowing how to give assistance to his friend.

"Come on, chum," he whispered, still keeping his eyes closed, "you've gotta defeat it. You can't let it win! You're better than it is." He heard Alister scream again. The chances were, all of them were in for another very long day.

* * *

Alister was gone by the time Raphael returned with Liu (who had been found to be quite healthy—and friendly, as she had even rubbed against the veterinarian). The blonde man found Valon sitting at the kitchen table gloomily, staring off into the distance. He was nursing a cup of chocolate milk, but it did not look as though he had drank very much of it.

"What's wrong?" Raphael asked in concern as he came in and sat down at the table. Liu meowed, rubbing against him and then going to Valon. "And where's Alister?" Raphael had been worrying about them both during the time he had been gone, not knowing what disaster might befall them. There were so many things that could go wrong in their current situations. He did not like the thought of Alister being gone at this point, even if just for a walk. The Orichalcos could attempt to get control at any time, and naturally would do everything in its power to accomplish that.

The Australian picked up the cat and set her on his lap, petting her gently. "He had another Orichalcos attack," he replied in a quiet tone, "and he said he wanted to get out for a bit." He then told Raphael of the day's earlier events, including how Alister had fallen in the shower. He was so caught up in worry for his friend that he did not even notice when Liu started lapping up some of his chocolate milk. Neither did Raphael.

The older man listened, deeply concerned. He wondered if they should go out after Alister, but then decided against it. Alister wanted to be alone during the times when he left the house. As long as he would come back, that was the main thing. _But would he return as the Alister they knew? _"Did he take his motorcycle?" Raphael asked then. He rather hoped not. If Alister had gotten dizzy enough to fall in the bathtub, he could get dizzy enough to crash his motorcycle. And if Alister _had_ taken it, then Raphael would again consider that perhaps they needed to go find him, before he would get himself hurt.

But Valon shook his head. "Naw," he answered, "he was walkin'. I think even he was edgy about trying to drive something after what happened." He sighed, glancing out the window. "He's already been gone about thirty minutes, maybe more. There's no telling when he might come back." Over the past weeks, Valon and Raphael had both noticed that whenever Alister went out for a drive or a walk, he tended to be gone several hours—sometimes even for the entire day. Often he did not return until after dark. Naturally they wondered what he busied himself with during those times, especially since he had not dared to visit the children's group home since the problem with the Orichalcos had started. He did not trust himself to be around the young ones, even though his friends were certain that he would never hurt them no matter what the circumstances.

Raphael rubbed the bridge of his nose. "It'll probably be a while, Valon," he said, speaking what Valon already knew. "There's not much sense in just sitting here worrying about him." But he knew that they both likely would. From what Valon had described, the Orichalcos attack had been of the most vicious variety. Whenever Alister screamed during one, it meant he was seriously close to losing control. Those kinds of attacks had been happening very frequently of late, with the number increasing almost daily. Raphael and Valon had good reason to fear for their friend's sanity. They both knew that it might not be intact for much longer.

As he looked down at the table, he suddenly blinked in astonishment. Valon then blinked at him in turn. "What?" he asked.

Raphael shook his head, trying to hide the amused smile creeping over his features. "You might want to consider getting some different chocolate milk to drink," he said.

Valon looked down, his mouth dropping open when he saw Liu blissfully drinking out of his glass. "Why you little . . .!" Liu blinked up at him, licking her lips as she meowed innocently. Valon slapped his forehead.

Raphael found that he could not control the urge to laugh. After all the upsetting things that had been going on, it felt good to be able to laugh about something. Valon simply stared at him, not finding it funny at all at first, but eventually the laugh was catching and he found himself snickering in amusement as well. Liu, unaware that she was the cause of it all, gave the equivalent of a feline shrug and leaped gracefully to the floor, where she happily began lapping up water from her bowl. The chocolate milk had been interesting, but she decided that water was her preferred beverage.

* * *

After they finally calmed down again, Valon told Raphael about the phone call from his parents. Raphael's eyes narrowed grimly at this news.

"Did they say where they were calling from?" he asked. They were now sitting in the living room—Raphael on one side of the couch and Valon on the other side. Liu was sitting on Raphael's lap, purring contentedly. Raphael stroked her fur absently as he looked to Valon for a reply.

The brunette shook his head. "Naw," he said bitterly. "I guess they were too smart for that. Maybe they knew about the charges against them. Anyway, even if they didn't, I told 'em. Then they tried to make like they weren't the ones who trashed the place. Heck, maybe they even weren't. Maybe they had some lackeys to do it for them. It wouldn't surprise me any." He hugged the pillow as he glared down at the floor. "They'd probably wanna make sure that no one could prove they came here."

Raphael growled. "Probably," he agreed. It sounded like the sort of trick that people of that caliber would enact.

"Why won't they go away already!" Valon burst out. This was not the first time that he had vented to Raphael about it. He was positively fed up with his parents and their insistence on getting him back. And Raphael was a good listener in times such as these. Valon sometimes wondered, however, who was a good listener when Raphael needed someone. The Australian somewhat doubted that his blonde friend ever bore his feelings. Instead he most likely kept his frustrations to himself, the way Alister usually did. "We all know that I don't mean anything to them!"

Raphael shook his head. "The only thing I can figure out," he said darkly, "is that they want to sell you again, for whatever reason." He now mentioned his mercenary theory, which Valon agreed sounded plausible. "We have a lot of enemies who'd probably like to get their hands on you," the blonde added now, his eyes narrowing.

Valon snorted. "Yeah, well . . . they're gonna havta try harder than they are," he muttered.

"Say that and it'll probably happen," Raphael growled pessimistically.

* * *

Alister wandered the streets of Domino City aimlessly for hours. Ironically, he mused to himself, he had done the very same thing on the day when he had acquired the deadly Orichalcos stones that had been the start of his personal struggle with his inner darkness. And now the person who had deliberately caused him his grief was dead. It was eerie to think about—how Hans had fallen because of his lust for vengeance and revenge. That had been Alister during his stint with Doom. Hatred had consumed him, driving him to wish to render heartache upon the Kaiba family. He hated himself when he recalled that time.

_They were innocent people,_ he thought to himself belligerently. _And actually . . . even Gozaburo was. It was Dartz who brought about my family's deaths. Though . . . Gozaburo still sold weapons to both sides in the war._ He clenched a fist. _So many lives were lost because of that war. . . . But I became like the very people I loathed. And that's happening to me again, now. . . ._

The Orichalcos would not leave him be, and it had not since the day he had been contaminated with it once again. It was constantly there, influencing his thoughts, causing him to speak and act cruelly to his friends, and trying to force him to lose his grip on reason. He could barely stand it. And though he had not lost control of himself since the horrifying incident two weeks ago with Doom Reborn, he knew that the Orichalcos had been growing stronger even as he was trying to fight it off. Soon, he would falter again and he would not be able to control what happened next.

He stopped on a hill in the local park, letting the wind blow through his hair as he stared out at the city. The breeze whipped his trenchcoat around him, but he barely noticed.

At the loud clap of lightning he was startled out of his reverie, however, and he glanced up at the gray clouds covering the night sky. Obviously a storm was coming. He did not particularly want to be caught in another downpour, so he opted to head home. Rainstorms brought back too many unwanted memories, anyway—memories of bombs, blood, and death—though it had actually been a clear day when Miruko had been taken from him. Or had it been? The smoke from the explosions had made it hard to tell.

_Before this happened to me . . . was I truly happy?_ he pondered as he pulled his coat closer around him as he fled down the deserted street. At times he wondered if he had ever had pure happiness since Miruko had perished. He loved his surrogate family that he had now, but since his eyes had been opened to the knowledge that loved ones could be so easily taken away, he always lived with a certain fear that he would lose them. But he did not want to believe that would happen. And as he continued to run from the rain that was beginning to pour down, he knew that he had experienced some moments of happiness recently. There was always an emptiness in his heart, but he had found that he could still be content in this life. As long as he had Raphael and Valon, he was happy.

* * *

He would not return home to a welcome scene. As it turned out, Howard and Martha were ready to make their next move. Sending out several hitmen, they hoped to get Valon and to leave his friends either too badly beaten to do anything to stop them or else to have them taken along as well. Their employer would pay well to have all of them, but the Paltridges were the most interested in Valon. However, it would be unwise to leave loose ends around, so the Paltridges decided that something needed to be done with the other two as well. Otherwise, they knew that Raphael and Alister would continue to bother them. Their reason for wanting Valon was secret even to the assassins. It was not their place to understand what they wanted, but only to make certain that they got hold of it. And once the bikers were subdued enough, then the Paltridges would make their appearance.

And so the men arrived at the bikers' home, breaking in through the back entrance and finding themselves in the kitchen. Liu was there to greet them, wondering what these strange people were doing entering the house, but they were not pleased to see her. Animals would only get in their way. The ringleader viciously lifted his foot to kick the innocent cat along when Raphael abruptly entered the room.

"Leave the cat alone," he growled, his blue eyes narrowed. Liu immediately went over to him, peeking out from behind his legs. She flicked an ear, deciding that she did not like these people. "What do you want?"

"We have our orders," answered the one in charge, who seemed to be even more muscular and strong than Raphael himself. "We're here to get an Australian kid." He gave a malicious smirk as he regarded the blonde man in front of him. "And probably to kill you, if you get in our way." Their orders were actually to bring all three in alive, but he did not see much point in telling that to Raphael. Besides, if they had too terrible a time getting Valon, he did intend to kill all obstacles, whether it was against his orders or not.

Raphael was decidedly not pleased by this admission. "You're not gonna get Valon without a good fight," he declared. As he surveyed the six strong men who had entered, he wondered where Alister was and if the redhead was safe. What if these people had done away with him before coming here? He clenched a fist. He had to believe that Alister was alive—and sane. "Who are you working for?"

"None of your business," came the cold reply as a thick fist flew out at Raphael. The blonde man retaliated by grabbing the fist and squeezing tightly, then shoving the person back into his cohorts, causing them all to tumble to the floor in a heap.

"Let me ask you again—who are you working for?" Raphael towered over them, his eyes flashing furiously. This was not going to be tolerated. They did not have a right to break into the house, threaten to abduct Valon and kill the others, and try to make good on their threat. Raphael would not stand for it.

The only response he got was one of the others punching him in the stomach before he had a chance to defend himself. Immediately he doubled over in pain, but when they all lunged at him, he managed to get out of the way just in time.

Valon, hearing the commotion, was about to head into the kitchen to help his friend when abruptly he felt himself being grabbed from behind. "Who's there?" he demanded, instantly going on the defensive and preparing to fight if need be. The feeling suddenly came over him that while Raphael was being distracted, a separate faction had been sent to get him—and he was outraged. "Come on, don't we get any peace here!"

"You're coming with us," was the grouchy reply he got.

"Oh I am, am I?" With that Valon jabbed his elbow into the man's stomach and kicked backwards at the same time. A growl of pain followed, and Valon dove away once the grip on his shoulder was loosened. Turning to face his would-be abductors, the brunette was not impressed to find another half dozen assassins in his path. _Who are they? Are they from Doom Reborn . . . or my parents? . . . Or are they even from both? Maybe my parents are workin' for Doom Reborn._ The thought actually did not surprise him. They would go anywhere if they thought they would get paid with some sort of reward. "What if I don't wanna go?"

"You don't have much of a choice." The one in the lead moved forward to grab the boy, but Valon dove between his legs and leaped into the air, kicking him in the back and then using him as a springboard to attack the next one in the face.

"Oh I'd say I've got a choice, mate," he said coldly, dropping back to the floor and glaring harshly at his opponents. "You're gonna find it's not that easy to get me. I have a mind not to go where I don't want to." He used his stature to his advantage, as he always had in the past, and dodged blows and kicks as he dealt them out himself.

Raphael was not doing badly either, as he made his way into the living room with his assailants following. All of them were showing the signs of being involved in a long, drawn-out fight, though Raphael himself did as well. He turned around abruptly, wrenching one's arm around and then throwing the hapless form over his shoulder to crash onto the floor. As another started to grab him from behind, Raphael grabbed the wrists and began an all-out wrestling match. He was growing worried. He and Valon would not be able to hold them off forever, and there was still Alister to worry about. But surely he was alright. . . .

Suddenly there was a yelp and Valon slammed right into Raphael from behind, sending them and Raphael's current opponent all to the floor at once. Raphael was about to ask if Valon was alright when a horrific pain began to course through his body. From the way Valon had tensed and was shuddering on Raphael's back, the man knew that they were both feeling it. When he managed to open his eyes, in spite of the crushing pain, he found that a green light was encircling them both. They were being attacked by the Orichalcos!

Valon gritted his teeth, wanting desperately to rise but not being able to force his body to cooperate. "Raph," he choked out, "it's my parents. . . . They're using the . . ." He trailed off, screaming as the pain intensified. He gripped at Raphael's shoulders without meaning to, trembling as he felt his heart racing faster. The pain was almost impossible to bear. Was this what had happened to Hans? Or was it what Alister felt when the Orichalcos was trying to gain control of him? If so, Valon did not blame him for crying out. He felt as though he was about to fall unconscious, and judging from the way Raphael's fists were clenched and from the way he was also quaking, the blonde man felt the same way.

"Why?" Raphael at last managed to get out. Valon's parents were doing this to the both of them? But that did not make sense to him. They wanted Valon alive. This was going to kill them if they kept it up! He wanted badly to get up and force them to cease, but he could see that it would be impossible. It almost felt as though the force was holding him down to the floor as well as shooting agonizing pain through his and Valon's bodies. He could not get up even if he tried.

"I dunno," Valon answered, his voice growing weaker.

This was the scene Alister came home to as he opened the door—Valon and Raphael laying on the floor and being tortured with the energies of the Orichalcos. A couple that he did not recognize was responsible. They were both holding out very large, green stones that were obvious chunks of the evil force that he himself had been unwillingly infused with. Their eyes glinted with malevolence, though their ultimate motive was not clear. Surrounding Valon and Raphael on three sides were the twelve assassins who had been enlisted to bring them down. Each one was also holding one of the stones, though their portions were considerably smaller than either of those possessed by the couple.

Alister took in the scene all at once, his gray eyes narrowing as they flashed with violence and rage—and crimson. What did they think they were doing? At the moment it did not matter to him whether these people wanted to kill Valon and Raphael or not (which they actually did not, of course). The only thing that mattered to him and that was registering in his mind was that they were being harmed. They were all that he had in this world and they were the ones he truly cared about with all of his heart and soul. And these intruders, whoever they might be, were inflicting harm upon them! How dare they. How dare they ever stoop so low. The redhead clenched his fists, shaking with rage as he stood in the doorway, dripping wet from the rain once again. He did not even consciously realize that he was speaking aloud at first.

"How dare you," he uttered in a voice that was dangerously calm, yet deadly. "How _dare_ you! What did they do to you! What did they ever do to you?" He did not realize it, but a turquoise glow was beginning to envelope his being as he continued to stand where he was. The Seal of Orichalcos was beginning to appear on the floor beneath his feet.

Vaguely Valon registered Alister's voice through the pain and anguish and he struggled to look up, but he was suffering too greatly to even attempt making a response. As the pain went up another notch, he could not help but let out a scream. Raphael groaned, though he had been striving to not know how badly it was affecting him. It was impossible not to acknowledge it now.

"There's the other one," the woman remarked in a low tone, having glanced over at Alister when he had spoken. "After we take care of these two, we'll get him as well. He shouldn't be much of a challenge." She smirked, taking in Alister's slender frame. "Then Valon will come with us, as we planned. Doom Reborn gets the other two."

She was unaware of it, but her words were the breaking point for Alister. "You're his parents," he hissed in realization, not having met them when they had come by the house before. "You're the ones who beat him when he was a child! You're the monsters that sold him to a child slave ring!" He hated them with a passion, and had ever since he had finally learned the truth about their atrocities toward their son. Now he was meeting them in person. Now he had the chance to deal out justice to them for their wickedness in the past. And they were hurting Valon again now, and Raphael as well! "What right do you even have to exist? What right do you have to come back here now and expect to get your son back? _What right do you have to be tormenting him and Raphael? _WHAT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE?" The redhead let out a scream, energy pulsating around him and abruptly spiraling outward as a violent ripple upon a river. His hatred had been unleashed, and the Orichalcos along with it.

As the powerful force tore through the room, it struck Valon's parents and all of the hitmen in turn. They screamed, becoming airborne as they slammed viciously into the wall, some crashing through windows or doors instead. Alister watched this coldly, his coat whipping around in the breeze as a sadistic sneer came over his features. "Die," he whispered in a tone more chilling than if he had screamed the word at the top of his lungs. "They should all die. I hate them all."

Valon and Raphael, released of the agony they had been suffering, were now both laying on the floor, gasping for breath and attempting to recover. Neither was quite aware at this point of what Alister had done, as they had been wracked with too much pain to have much knowledge about what had taken place. Now, as they were slowly trying to come back to themselves, they discovered the tall redhead's shadow falling across the doorway.

"Alister?" Valon choked out, trying to look up at him and at last succeeding. But he let out a gasp as he took in his friend's expression. This was as it had been when Alister had fought the Doom Reborn warriors in the past. He looked murderous, only now Valon realized that Alister was not directing this gaze to someone else. Now he was directing it to Valon and Raphael. The brunette's eyes widened in horror. "No," he breathed, unwilling to believe it was so. Alister would not have turned against them! He would not have! And yet . . . he knew that if Alister's sanity had finally snapped, he had, indeed, turned against them.

Registering Valon's alarm, Raphael struggled to look up as well. Instead he felt a sharp kick in his ribs. "Get up," came Alister's cold voice. "I saved your lives for a purpose." As Raphael tried to blink away the cobwebs from his mind, he saw Alister's wicked, cruel countenance and he felt an uncontrollable chill go down his spine. The Orichalcos symbol was glowing brightly on his forehead and his gray eyes no longer existed—the irises were pure red.

"What the heck!" Valon wailed, managing to regain a bit more of his strength as he saw the Seal. _This isn't happening!_ "Alister! Look at yourself!" he cried, panic-stricken as he realized what must have happened. _Alister saw us in pain . . . and rushed to save us . . . but he got taken over by his hatred. . . . The Orichalcos has him. . . . But it can't! It just can't! It's not supposed to be that way!_ He felt dizzy, but not from the energy that had been channeled into him. "You didn't want this, you idiot! You didn't want this! You have to snap out of it, Alister!" His voice rose with each sentence, but he could see that his words were not having an effect.

"Alister?" the redhead repeated vaguely. "I'm sorry, but Alister's not here anymore." He grinned in a despicable way, the Orichalcos symbol seeming to grow more prominent, if that were possible. "And he's not coming back."

Raphael could not bear this. Their Alister was lost to them. This was a stranger. This was a servant of the darkness. And Raphael had a very bad feeling that he knew what Alister's "purpose" was. He was going to kill them both himself.


	12. The Duel

**Notes: Some of Raphael's lines in the last scene were borrowed from a role-play with Aubrie. They were so good, beautiful, and perfect for this that I had to use them.**

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* * *

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**Chapter Eleven**

Alister crossed his arms, looking down at his friends with the continuing evil gleam in his eyes. He felt no pity and no compassion for these sorry souls laying before him. They were holding him back. They were keeping him from obtaining what he truly desired—to purify this mad world of all its wickedness. And he would not stand for it. Whether they wished it or not, he would go ahead with his plans. Not even he himself could stop this, even if he wanted to. The darkness had consumed his heart.

"I'm finally free," he hissed balefully. "Your strongest efforts couldn't prevent the work of the Orichalcos! It's taken over anyway. What do you think of that?" He reached down to grab Valon up by the back of his shirt. Angrily the Australian responded by slapping his hand away.

"I think it's all crazy, is what," the brunette snapped. "This isn't you, Alister! You know you didn't want this to happen!" Though he spoke harshly, his heart was being twisted. For so long now he had watched Alister suffer, and now it seemed that all of his fighting had been in vain. The Orichalcos still claimed him as a victim because of his hatred over watching his friends being hurt. And now . . . now Alister was gone, buried underneath the ancient force's evil power. But still Valon had to believe that their Alister still existed, somewhere. He could not bear the thought that this treacherous, miserable entity was all that was left of a man who had been strong of heart and mind. "You wanna know what else I think?" the Australian cried out suddenly, forcing himself to his knees in spite of the pain. "I think that Alister _is_ still here. He couldn't be canceled out just like that."

"You're a fool." Alister bent down, striking Valon across the face. "I'm Alister now. Your Alister was weak. He depended on other people for his happiness. Without them there, he felt that he couldn't be happy. And yet he had once vowed never to care about anyone again. He should have stayed with that philosophy. After all, he was right. Loved ones all die eventually, and then you're left behind to go through life alone! Why not stay alone to begin with and bypass the heartache?" He looked toward Raphael. "What does it profit you to know and love people if in the end you know you'll be separated from them anyway?" This was Alister's dark soul, twisted by the Orichalcos's effects. In Alister's darkest moments, he had pondered upon all of those thoughts and had agreed with them. But there was still a difference between that Alister and the one who was now being controlled by the energy. Alister had indeed believed that there was not a point in caring about people, but if he had started to care anyway, he would never have wanted to end those persons' lives. Under the control and possession of the Orichalcos, however, this Alister was willing.

Raphael snarled, narrowing his eyes as he also struggled to rise. "Alister came to realize that pain is a part of life," he said darkly. "He couldn't hide from it. And even with the pain that comes from losing someone, it's better to have been with them for a while than to never have known them at all." That was how Raphael felt about both his first family—his biological family—and his second family—his surrogate brothers. But even though some part of his common sense screamed that Alister was lost to them now, he refused to believe it. He was not going to turn his back on a friend who had been dear to him. "Alister opened his heart again, and he was happier for it."

"Do you know that?" Alister half-turned, speaking in a voice that was both bitter and triumphant. "Do you know he was truly happy? Maybe his life was consumed by thoughts that you would both die and that he would be alone again."

"That's not true!" Valon yelled, but then froze. How did he know it was false? Alister was so quiet . . . and he did seem melancholy most of the time. What if Alister had never been happy there, with them? Valon swallowed hard. _Don't listen to him,_ he told himself. _This isn't Alister. Our Alister was happy. He wanted us to be here with him. He didn't want us to go away!_

It seemed so long ago now, but Valon began to remember the conversation the two of them had had on the day when the letter from the law firm had come. He had gone to the redhead, wanting confirmation that he would be missed if his parents took him away. _"Yes,"_ Alister had answered him, _"I would, actually. I would miss you."_ It pained Valon to remember that later, on that very night, Alister had been poisoned by the Orichalcos stone. He had never been the same since.

"Alister was happy!" Valon screamed then, shaking with anger as he struggled to stand. He swayed badly, but Alister offered him no assistance. At last Raphael, who was also attempting to get up, steadied the boy. "Alister loved us like we were his brothers! It took me a long time to realize that, but . . . I finally did." _But was it too late?_ "And just because you got your mind warped by the Orichalcos doesn't change that!" He poked the older man in the chest. "Our Alister's still fightin'."

Alister allowed this to happen, but he was seemingly unaffected by the Australian's words. Instead he turned, heading for the door. "Do you really think so? Do you think he could withstand the hatred . . . the pain . . . the awesome wonder of the Orichalcos?" He did not wait for a reply. "No! He could not. He was weak! He was pathetic. And I'm glad to finally be rid of him."

"SHUT UP!" Valon wailed. "I hate you! I hate you for taking him away! And I hate the Orichalcos!" He gripped the edge of the table, forcing himself to continue standing as he looked around at all of the people sprawled throughout the room. They were not dead . . . were they? He felt dizzy at the thought. It was not necessarily that he wanted his parents to remain among the living and to be continuing to bring heartache to people—including to himself, but he could not stand the thought of Alister delivering the fatal blows, especially out of pure hatred. It frightened him.

"Hate it all you want," Alister smirked. "Hatred is what lost your friend to you, not me. I'm part of him, you know—the darkest part." He turned back, the eerie green aura surrounding his form once again. Outside the thunder crashed loudly, signaling the arrival of another storm.

Raphael was not impressed. "That's only partially true," he said coldly, blinking as he felt an immense headache coming over him again, just as it had in the past when he and the others had fallen through the Orichalcos barrier. "You're mostly the Orichalcos itself. You've twisted Alister's dark side until it's all out of balance." But he did agree that hatred was what caused the Orichalcos to erupt and gain control. In a moment of weakness, the darkness would always take hold of the opportunity to get free. He shut his eyes tightly. He had to stay calm somehow, if he wanted to save Alister. He could not make the same unwilling mistake that the redhead had. "Actually, I think you're the pathetic one."

Alister laughed. It was a rough, uncaring sound that made his friends shudder. "I don't really care," he replied. "But if you care to follow me, be my guests." With that he ran out of the house, leaping on his red motorcycle and speeding off. Both of the others called after him, but in vain. The thunder clapped again loudly as Alister rode away, almost as if to signal an ending. Valon was haunted.

"He's going," he said, clutching the doorframe. "Just like that . . . he's going!" He wanted to hit something. Alister was not supposed to leave like that! But then, he was not supposed to be taken over by the Orichalcos either. None of it should have happened to him. _It's all because of Doom Reborn . . . and my parents,_ the Australian thought bitterly. _They made him go nuts! They're all responsible for this!_

"He said for us to follow him," Raphael reminded. "So let's go." His blue eyes narrowed resolutely. They were going to rescue their friend. Somehow, they were going to find a way. They would not allow Alister to fall to the darkness! Raphael would not believe that it was too late for him. They had all conquered the darkness before and they would do again. Alister, Raphael vowed, would not wind up like Hans.

Valon nodded, starting to walk outside, but then turned back. "Hey," he realized, "what about all those . . ." He trailed off, discovering that his parents and their minions had all vanished. They would, unfortunately, be hearing from those criminals again.

"There's nothing to do about them," Raphael growled. "Come on. Alister turned toward the downtown district. Let's find him before he causes any trouble to anyone." He petted the confused Liu apologetically before quickly leaving the house with Valon and locking the door behind them. He prayed that there would be three returning to the home instead of two.

* * *

Much to their horror, they found that it was not hard to find exactly where Alister had gone. All along the way they found people laying dazed from the blasts caused by the Orichalcos's energies. Apparently, Raphael and Valon determined, their friend's passionate side had come out again and he had attacked anyone whom he thought was committing some sort of injustice. Among the ones sprawled on the sidewalk were several members of a local gang.

"Crikey," Valon whispered, swallowing hard. "It looks like Alister's been here. . . ." He ran a hand through his fluffy bangs. Things were just getting worse all the time. If the gang remembered that Alister had attacked them, they might come after him later. _If there is a later. . . ._

Raphael shook his head. "It looks like it." He revved the engine of his motorcycle again. "And the way things are going, it almost looks like he's heading toward KaibaCorp." He sped off again before Valon could reply. He was almost frantic to catch up with their wayward friend. _What could he want at KaibaCorp? Is he going after Kaiba again?_ But surely that was not it. Still, Alister's actions completely baffled the older man. Why _would_ he go there?

Valon stared after Raphael in disbelief. "KaibaCorp, eh?" he muttered. "Well . . . if you're gonna make some kinda mischief there, mate, we're just gonna havta stop you." _Come on, Alister . . . don't let us down. Heck . . . don't let yourself down!_ He started his own motorcycle's engine, hurrying to follow after Raphael in their quest to save their friend.

* * *

When they arrived at the Kaiba Corporation building several minutes later, there was no sign of Alister's probable presence other than his motorcycle parked in front. Quickly the other two bikers parked their own and hurried into the building to look for him. The thunder crashed ominously around them as they went into the revolving door.

After a brief glance around, the duo found that the only sign of life in the lobby was a night receptionist, who looked up at them both with wide, startled eyes that bespoke of a recent shock. "Can I help you men?" she asked quaveringly.

"Did someone else come through here a few minutes ago?" Raphael asked gruffly.

"We're lookin' for a redhead with a trenchcoat and a midriff shirt," Valon put in, pushing his goggles up on his head.

The receptionist swallowed and nodded, pointing to the elevator. "He went up to the fifteenth floor," she informed them. "That's where they have the latest shipments of duel disks." Wide-eyed, she watched the two run to the elevator themselves. "Do you know what he's up to?" she exclaimed. "I was just about to call security."

Raphael shook his head. "Don't bother," he said. "We'll get him." Truthfully, he was afraid of what Alister might do to the security guards, in his crazed condition. And Raphael did not want anyone to get hurt unnecessarily. What was more, if they were going to hope to help him, it would be better if there were not other people around. Alister was not a social person by nature and crowds annoyed him. Raphael and Valon would have a better chance of getting through to him if they were alone.

Once the elevator doors clanged shut and they began to be propelled upward, Valon turned to look up at his friend. "What do you think he's up to, Raph?" he asked. _Is he gonna duel Kaiba?_ Naturally they did not still possess the duel disks from Paradius, so if Alister wanted to duel, he would have to get one made by KaibaCorp. _But did he now have the Seal of Orichalcos, too?_ Valon swallowed hard, but then remembered that he actually had not seen any of the Doom Reborn members with that card. Maybe they did not know how to create it yet and that was part of the information they wanted from the former "Musketeers of Doom"? Valon supposed that was possible.

Raphael shook his head. "I really couldn't say," he replied truthfully, but he was starting to have a terrible sense of foreboding. "Do you have your deck with you?"

Valon blinked at him. "Well, yeah," he admitted. "I mean, I usually do carry it. . . . Wait a minute! You mean you think Alister's gonna challenge _us_!" His blue eyes went as wide as saucers. That had not been a possibility he had considered. He was still having trouble acknowledging that Alister had turned against them. He wanted to believe that it had not truly happened, but he knew that Alister would never be rescued with such an attitude. Valon knew that he had to accept what was in order to begin to help the now-unruly young man.

Raphael sighed sadly. "I'm afraid it's possible," he said as the fifteenth floor was reached. Immediately he ran out into the corridor, Valon swiftly following on his heels.

They learned a good deal from a confused employee who watched over the new merchandise. Alister had indeed been there, and he had collected three duel disks. When asked what he was going to do with them, he had sneered and responded, "What do you usually do with them?" Then he had gotten on the elevator again and had pushed the button for the roof.

"This kind of thing has never happened before," the boy berated. "Mr. Kaiba will be furious if something outlandish happens on his roof!" He wrung his hands, then looked up at Raphael and Valon with his bespectacled gaze. "What are you going to do?"

Valon was already running back to the elevators. "We're gonna catch him, is what!" he retorted. "He doesn't know what he's doing!" He waited impatiently for Raphael to get back in, then pressed the button for the roof and watched the doors close. _Whatever's gonna happen up there isn't gonna be pretty,_ the Australian teenager knew. And he had a bad feeling that he and Raphael were going to be on the receiving end of some sort of harsh punishment. He shut his eyes tightly, willing their Alister to keep fighting against the Orichalcos's force. _I know it's hard, chum . . . but you can't give up now. You can't!_

* * *

Thunder boomed loudly as they reached the roof and flung the door open. At first it was too dark to see anything more than a dark silhouette, but then lightning flashed and lit up the night sky, revealing Alister standing with crossed arms and facing the door. He had obviously been expecting company. On his left wrist he bore a duel disk. Two boxes were on the floor of the roof, at his feet. His expression was void of any mercy or kindness. He looked the way that someone did when possessed by the ancient evil—malevolent and vicious.

"I've been waiting," he said smoothly. "You certainly took your time getting here. Was I really that hard to find?" His red eyes gleamed in the darkness.

"Actually, no," Raphael retorted. "It was easy enough." He looked into the red eyes, searching for any remaining trace of his and Valon's dear friend. The man soon realized with a sinking heart that there was nothing. The stranger was still in complete control. "What do you want with us?"

"I'm certain you already know, don't you?" Alister pointed to the boxes. "The both of you are going to duel me in a penalty game. I may not have the actual Seal of Orichalcos card, but I do have the power to create a game of darkness." His trenchcoat whipped about in the wind as he bore his teeth in a wicked smirk. The green aura quickly gathered around him, preparing to explode into an entrapping Seal across the roof.

Valon clenched his fists tightly. "What's the point of it!" he demanded. Again he felt a certain dizziness. So it had come down to this. They were going to be forced to fight each other. But he refused to! There had to be another way. Somehow there had to be!

"I don't need you," Alister returned. "It's time that all unnecessary items are disposed of." He drew his deck from out of his jeans' pocket. "The loser in this duel, or losers, as the case may be, will die."

"Oh, so we're unnecessary items now!" Valon cried. "After all we've been through!" He could not stand it. Without thinking, his fury and frustration were unleashed. "You idiot! We're all you've got. Do you wanna destroy the only family you have? What would your brother think of you!" He glared at Alister and saw the younger man waver for only a moment before he shrugged the remark off. Truly, this was not their friend. If Alister was in control, that comment would have pierced his heart.

"I don't care," he snorted. "I only have myself. That's all I need. Isn't that your philosophy, anyway, Valon?" The brunette boy stepped back at that, not having expected that response and not quite knowing how to answer at first. Alister had struck a nerve, and he knew it. "I thought so." Deciding that he was tired of waiting for them to take their duel disks, he then picked up the boxes and threw one at each of them. "Catch."

Raphael snarled as he managed to grab hold of his box. "This is pointless, Alister!" he protested. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Valon catch the other container. "You have to stop this." He closed his eyes, shaking in trepidation. He knew very well what would happen if someone lost. Alister was not playing games—he meant what he said. But how could Raphael allow anyone to perish? If he and Valon lost, then Alister would continue his reign of terror and perhaps never be able to break free. And even if he could, he would be alone and with the knowledge that he had brought about his friends' deaths, even though he would never have wanted to do so if he had truly known what he had been doing. And if Alister lost, then Raphael and Valon would have lost their friend for certain. _But how do we know he isn't lost to us already? It seems like a lose-lose situation no matter how we look at it!_

"I don't think there'd be any fun in that." Alister spoke in a cold, low tone that made his words sound all the more deadly. He gave another wretched smirk.

Valon looked up at Raphael, the same thoughts that were plaguing Raphael obviously having been tumbling through Valon's own mind. "Raph," he whispered in a choked voice, "I can't do this! I can't fight him! You're right—it's pointless!" Several desperate tears came to his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. "Alister's an idiot! He can't do this!" _It's true—I did used to only look out for myself. But that was all in the past! It's different now. Now . . . now I really don't wanna see the people I care about gettin' hurt. . . ._ Not that he ever had. He had cared about Mother Mary and had tried to protect her, as he had later tried to protect Mai and prove that he loved her. Valon, though he had often before looked out after only himself, was a genuinely good person with a caring heart. He could not bear the thought of fighting Alister now.

"Unfortunately, he can and he is," Raphael responded quietly. He ripped open the duel disk box and removed the contents. "And he's not going to give us any choice, Valon. We're going to have to do this and just pray that somehow we'll be able to save him in the process." As he affixed the disk on his arm and drew out his deck, he suddenly felt the presence of Guardian Eatos beside him. He turned to look at her and she smiled kindly, though her eyes were sad. They had been through so much together over the years, ever since she had watched over him on the island. . . . He had not seen much of her of late, since he had become closer to Valon and Alister, but now he realized how much he had missed her.

Valon bit his lip, still struggling with his decision, though he knew Raphael was right. There truly was not much that could be done. "Fine!" he yelled abruptly, yanking the duel disk out of its box. "We'll fight you, Alister. But let me tell you somethin', mate—you're gonna regret this." _If you lose . . . I'm never gonna forgive myself. And if you win . . . I'm never gonna forgive myself. _Inwardly he screamed in desperation. How would dueling Alister release his mind from the viselike grip of the Orichalcos? It would only bring about someone's demise in the end, and no matter who perished, Valon was going to feel sick over the outcome. He swallowed the lump forming in his throat, but it only returned.

In the next moment Alister's aura exploded around them, forming the dreaded Seal of Orichalcos. The redhead grinned in delight, drawing his first hand. "I'll start us off," he announced, "and lucky for you both, I'm just going to place this monster card in defense mode. Now, show me what you can come up with." He studied his two opponents. The duel would not be an easy win, but it would be worth it. Once he was free of the shackles binding him down, he could get on with the other goals he wanted to accomplish—especially bringing about the purification of the world. The end would justify the means, after all. It did not matter what happened in the process of ridding the world of evil.

_If I really want to do that, though, I'll have to kill myself before the end. The Orichalcos's possession is making me evil. I can't stand it!_

He blinked in confusion. That was his own voice. Wait . . . what was going on? What was he doing? He felt as though he was regaining consciousness from a long slumber. He looked back up as Valon was reluctantly finishing his turn after summoning Psychic Armor Head to the field. _I'm dueling them!_ he realized then, starting to shake. The Orichalcos had blocked his knowledge of what was actually happening, but now he had broken free enough to realize it. _But I don't want to! I can't! Someone's going to die if this goes on! I have to stop it!_ But he found that he could not sever the Orichalcos's hold over him. As Raphael's turn began, Alister continued to struggle, feeling panic welling up within his heart. _I've been taken over by the Orichalcos! I have to break free . . . I have to. . . ._ He strained harder and suddenly felt pain rip through his entire body. Then he felt as though part of him was blacking out once again, leaving his dark soul to continue the duel.

And it was a heartwrenching duel for all parties involved. Everyone strived to do their best, knowing that they could do nothing less. Raphael and Valon continued to plead with Alister to break free of the Orichalcos, even as their monsters were being destroyed and as they were forced to attack him when they could. At one point Alister managed to target Valon's lifepoints directly and the boy cried out in pain, crashing against Raphael.

Valon moaned weakly, shaking his head as he tried to shake off the affects of the violent blow, which had been made worse by the presence of the Orichalcos. "Raph," he choked out sadly, looking up at the older man, "is he gone? Is the Alister we knew really . . . gone?" He gave a shudder, trying to get enough strength to stand up straight. Raphael had just managed to deliver a serious bit of damage to Alister's own lifepoints, and now this was how the slender man had retaliated. His eyes had been full of nothing but hatred as he had destroyed their last defense and then had attacked Valon.

Raphael felt his heart being squeezed mercilessly. His family was being torn asunder, forced against their will to battle each other to the death. This could not continue! It simply could not! And yet . . . Raphael knew that he and Valon were doing all they could to help their poor friend. It was up to Alister to do the rest, but he did not seem to be even trying. Still, Raphael was certain that he had to be. Alister would not have given up . . . and he had to still exist! "He can't be," he said finally. "That's all there is to it, Valon—he has to still be with us."

"But he's trying to kill us!" Valon cried, and Raphael had to admit that it was so. "This shouldn't be happening, Raph! It shouldn't be happening!"

The blonde man growled, supporting his dazed friend as he looked up at the other, insane friend. His eyes widened when he saw that Alister's hand was shaking. _He's still there! He doesn't want to do this!_ The realization was encouraging to Raphael as he helped Valon regain his balance. There was still hope. Alister was, indeed, continuing to fight against the Orichalcos's evil influences.

Abruptly Alister clutched his cards tightly, the shaking coming to a halt. He looked up at the other two with a wild, mocking expression. "I'm ending my turn here," he hissed. "Now, to see what fruitless attempt you'll discover next." Even as he spoke, his eyes were flickering violently and it was obvious that he was battling to break free. But then the Orichalcos prevailed again and his eyes went back to their full blood-red.

The duel continued for some time after that. Raphael and Valon were managing to hold their own, and at a critical point it looked as though they had a strategy that could work in their favor—but they were reluctant to go through with it. If they attempted it, they could wind up winning and Alister would die. But if they did nothing, then Alister would be able to bring their lifepoints down to zero within a matter of minutes and they would lose.

Raphael shut his eyes tightly, weighing their options. Either way, the chances of someone dying by Alister's next turn were great. How could Raphael deliberately lead either of his friends to his destruction? This situation was horrible, with none of the outcomes being what they wanted to think about. _I can't do this!_ he mentally screamed. _How can I be expected to go through with this? It's too much! I can't get Valon or Alister killed, if I can help it. _

Slowly a gentle peace settled over him. Raphael blinked in surprise. It was as if he was being told which decision was the correct one and that no matter what happened, everything would be alright. When he opened his eyes, he found Sonia, Julien, and Miruko all standing in front of him. The children nodded gently, their smiles soft and kind. Then they shimmered and vanished from view, but the message they had brought with them was clear.

Raphael let out a deep breath, looking to the anxious Australian. "Alister would want to be stopped," he said at last. "We don't want him to suffer, and we don't want to do anything that will bring about his death, but he would never forgive himself or us if this nonsense was allowed to continue." He knew he was speaking the truth, but still he felt a certain reluctance creeping within his soul. _Can we really go through with this?_

"So you're saying we've gotta get him killed!" Valon cried in disbelief and alarm, his cerulean eyes awash with grief-stricken emotions. _We can't do that! No one should have to die! No one. . . ._

Raphael clenched his teeth. "I hope not," he replied. "We're just gonna have to go with this and see what happens." But a new worry was growing. Even if Alister broke free of the control, would the duel be able to be stopped? What if it could not unless someone won? Then, even if they got Alister back, they might have to lose him—or he would lose them, and perhaps kill himself out of self-hatred. . . . "And . . . we'll have to keep praying, too," he added darkly.

Valon tried to will himself to not balk at Raphael's guidance to go ahead with the attack. "Yeah," he answered quietly, "I know." He narrowed his eyes, knowing that Raphael was correct. This could not continue. Alister would never want that. "Alright!" he yelled. "Let's give this our best shot. The rest is up to our chum." Eyes flashing, he drew his next card and he and Raphael set about trying to put their strategy together.

But unfortunately for them, Alister had been ready. When they attempted to attack, he retaliated ruthlessly. With his own, previously planned strategy, he managed to destroy their carefully placed cards and to lay extreme damage to their lifepoints. Valon, who had already taken a bad hit before, was suffering the worst now. As the blast hit both him and Raphael, the brunette cried out in pain and lost his balance, falling to the floor of the roof. He struggled to get up and failed miserably, collapsing back again.

Raphael was thrown against the barrier, hissing in pain as it crackled around him. Slowly he forced himself up, taking in the scene around him. Valon was laying hurt while Alister laughed maniacally, enjoying his moment of victory. As Raphael calculated the damage they had taken, he realized in horror that Alister would destroy them with another attack—which he already was about to unleash. And the blonde could not take it any longer.

"ALISTER! LOOK AT WHAT YOU'RE DOING!" Raphael was shaking as he bent down, helping Valon get up. The fact that they were in a penalty game only made the attacks more brutal and real. It was no wonder that the poor boy looked close to passing out. Raphael held him up with a strong arm, continuing to scream at their red-haired friend. "YOU HAVE TO SNAP OUT OF THIS!"

"Sorry," was the reply, though it seemed forced, "it's Game Over." He began to call out the attack, but then grimaced, closing his eyes tightly and raising a hand to his head. Desperately he clawed at the Orichalcos symbol, as if hoping that he could magically remove it by doing so. His heart was racing wildly. Throughout the entire duel he had been fighting so hard, but it seemed as though it had all been for naught. _Am I really this weak? Does the Orichalcos really have this much power over me?_ He swayed, unaware that he had dropped almost all of the cards in his hand.

_They're going to die. . . . I'm going to kill them. . . . They'll both die by my hands!_ The thought was too horrible for him to bear. His struggle only became all the more frantic, but the more he strived to get loose, the more the Orichalcos prevented him. At last he let out a terrible, hideous scream that caused the others' blood to run cold. His other hand flew to his head as he doubled over, shuddering uncontrollably and putting all of his energy into overthrowing the treacherous power. But still it all seemed to no avail. The Orichalcos was going to claim his mind once again and cause him to call out the attack that would completely devastate his opponents—his friends. He could not allow it, but he did not know how to prevent it. It was the most horrible situation that he could think of to be in. He was not in control of his own body, and now he had caused a fatal penalty game to be played against the only living people he truly cared about. He felt the Orichalcos rake through his soul.

"_GOD . . . HELP ME!"_

The plea rang out directly from his heart, but he did not realize that he had screamed aloud. He remained where he was, trembling as he continued to fight against the Orichalcos. Then, slowly, as he felt a change come over him, he opened his eyes and looked up. The power was still there, but he had managed to push it back for an indeterminable amount of time. His eyes changed color furiously now, switching from red to gray and back again. The Orichalcos symbol was likewise flickering, though it was still clear upon his forehead.

"Alister?"

"Alister, is it you?"

He breathed heavily, focusing upon his friends. Valon was dazed and barely able to stand up. Raphael was bruised from the various attacks, but he was able to stand better than the Australian. Both were looking at him hopefully, their blue eyes intense.

Alister felt abhorrence rise in his soul. He had done this! He had caused their misery! Even though he had not wanted to ever hurt them, he still had. And there was no way out of this duel . . . no way that he could save them . . . except one.

"I'm sorry," he choked out, not knowing how much time he even had left before the Orichalcos grasped him again. "I . . . I didn't want this to happen. . . . I never wanted this. . . ." His voice was broken. "I didn't want to hurt either of you!" His heart twisted again as he watched them. All he had wanted was to protect them, but his hatred had gotten the better of him. That was when the Orichalcos had been able to reign freely over him and to cause this.

"I know," Raphael said softly, a morose look in his eyes. "I know you didn't, Alister." He did not blame Alister. This was the friend that he and Valon remembered and had been praying for. But Raphael could also see that the Orichalcos was still there as well. He had no idea what would even happen now, and from Valon's expression, he also did not. But the sinking feeling in Raphael's heart had returned.

"You've gotta stop this!" Valon told him now, shuddering as he watched the gray-eyed young man. Alister was back. . . . He had managed to break free. . . . For however long it would last, he was with them again. But it did not appear as though it would last for very long. Valon did not feel that he could rejoice in his friend's victory at this point.

"I'm going to," Alister replied sadly. He knew what he had to do. He knew the only way that he could possibly rescue them. But he looked up at them again before he enacted it. He wanted to see them again . . . one more time, as his normal self, not as the crazed, possessed man he had been only moments before. He knew that they were likely to be upset at what he had to do, but he knew that he must do it anyway. He refused to allow his friends to die.

"I'm not going to ask for your forgiveness," he told them, his bangs blowing gently in the wind, "because I don't feel that I deserve it. Even though it wasn't me doing this, it was my body. I couldn't control what the Orichalcos did to me." As Raphael and Valon stared into his eyes, they were stunned at how empty the orbs looked. "I can't say I'm sorry enough, so I won't even try. All I can do is make one last effort to save you both." He raised his hand, shaking as he tried to lower it onto his deck in surrender. The Orichalcos was growing stronger. He had to act now or he might not be able to at all.

It was as if an arrow had slammed into Raphael's heart. Alister had not said what he meant to do, but Raphael had carried a suspicion, and now that Alister was trying to surrender, the suspicion was confirmed. He ran forward, desperate to stop him and screaming his name. "It can't end this way! Alister, you can't do it! There has to be another way. . . ." But he knew there was none, not unless they could struggle to create a draw—and in the circumstances, there was no way that was possible. They were going to lose their friend.

Valon, still somewhat dazed, could not comprehend at first what Alister was doing. But then it hit him and his eyes widened. Even though it pained him to even move, he struggled to run over as well. "You idiot!" he wailed. "Alister, no!" _I don't wanna lose you! You're my friend! I don't wanna lose either you or Raph!_

Alister looked at him with a wry, rueful smirk that was purely the creation of the Alister that Valon and Raphael both knew. "I'm always an idiot to you, eh, Valon?" he remarked (though he knew that Valon did not mean it), as he at last succeeded in placing his hand down and sealing his fate. "We all know that this is the only way. Please . . . don't grieve over me, either of you. I wanted to do this. I had to do it to save you from the madness that I created." The barrier closed in around him, preventing the others from getting to him. They could only stop, shaking and staring at him with a mixture of alarm and panic. There was nothing they could do. He gave a slight shudder as he knew what would happen now. "Goodbye," he whispered.

"No one should have to die!" Raphael screamed, his heart and his self-control shattering into millions of pieces. He could no longer struggle to be the strong one, not with one of his friends sacrificing himself in this way. _I never wanted it to come to this!_ And he felt anger rise within him. Why had he and Valon enacted their strategy? That could not have been the right thing. Maybe if they had not, Alister could still have broken free and he would not be about to die right now!

Alister smiled sadly at both him and Valon, but he had no chance to respond before he was violently electrocuted. He gasped in pain, wanting to scream, but the resulting blasts drained him too much to even do that. As the Seal faded away at last, it gave him a final, punishing blast that sent him toppling backwards over the guard rail. This was the end.


	13. The Aftermath

**Chapter Twelve**

Valon's cry of alarm was absolutely heart-breaking. As soon as Alister tumbled off the roof's surface, the Australian lunged forward, desperately trying to grab him even though he knew he would fail. He stumbled, feeling the guard rail only being a minor obstacle in his way. For one frightening moment, Raphael was afraid that he would lose both of his friends. But then he managed to get his arms around the boy's waist, dragging him back. Valon yelled, but allowed this, as he was still reeling in shock. He slumped back against Raphael, the tears at last beginning to fall. "Alister . . . he . . . he's gonna die!" he choked out amid the strangled sobs. "That idiot! . . . He's dyin' because of us. . . ." He reached up, gripping at Raphael's arms so tightly that he nearly cut off the circulation. "We can't just let him fall! Are you crazy, Raph! We can't!" He was nearly in hysterics, so distraught was he over this turn of events. Alister had said not to grieve over him . . . but had he truly thought that would keep his friends from doing so? And how could they stand by and allow him to perish in this way? That was not right! None of this was right!

Raphael closed his eyes tightly, unable to bear the thought of watching Alister fall. He almost hoped that Alister was, indeed, already dead, so that he would not feel the pain of the impact. The man clutched at Valon as if the teenager was his last lifeline to sanity—which was actually the truth. If he lost Valon too, especially at this point, he would go mad. "Valon, I want to save him," he managed to say at last. "More than anything, I want to save him. . . . But there's nothing we can do. And . . . he's probably already . . ." He had to swallow before he could go on. "He's probably already dead anyway, from the electricity." But that still did not lessen the anguish he felt. He lowered his head, feeling Valon's fluffy hair brush against his face as he did so. Rarely had he felt as helpless as he did on this night. Alister had been suffering so greatly, the Orichalcos claiming his sanity at last . . . and then he had broken free, only to sacrifice himself to save the friends whom he had challenged to a life-and-death duel against his will. It just did not seem fair. Alister should not have died! _No one should have. . . ._

"He wanted to save us," Valon continued, shuddering again. "That's all he wanted! But . . . didn't he know that this'd cause us pain, Raph! DIDN'T HE KNOW!" His heart had also been rent in pieces. Valon was haunted by the last moments of Alister's life, and the hollow look in his eyes as he had surrendered the duel. The entire episode had obviously crushed Alister's spirit, though Valon did not blame him. But he simply wanted to have the redhead back, and to be able to tease and argue with him, just as it had always been. He felt guilt rising up anew at how badly strained their friendship had been at the last. _I should've been more patient with him. . . . Heck, I knew that he wasn't trying to do anything wrong. How come I couldn't have been nicer when he was struggling so hard?_ It was only human for Valon to have been upset at the various things Alister had said and done (even though it had been against his will that he had said and done them), but that did not give the boy any comfort now. He felt that he should have been able to have handled the situations better. But patience during exasperating experiences had never been one of his strong points.

"Yes," Raphael struggled to say. Only several seconds had passed since Alister had fallen over the edge, though it seemed an eon. He had probably not hit the bottom yet. Oh! Raphael could not bear to think of it happening. "He knew, Valon. . . . But that's the irony of it . . . no matter which of us would die, there'd be someone mourning him. . . . It wouldn't be any different, no matter who it was. . . ." For they all loved each other as brothers, as Valon had said earlier. They had no one else, so they had formed strong ties with each other. Now one of those ties had been severed. "I wish in a way that I'd been taken over instead of Alister," he said, swallowing hard, "but that would've still caused you and Alister pain." _And what if I hadn't been able to break free, as Alister did?_ He narrowed his eyes. No, they were all stronger than the Orichalcos. They all could, and had, defeated its evil before.

Valon continued to grip at his friend's thick arms. "Yeah," he said quietly in agreement, "you're right, Raph." He shuddered, a silent sob wracking his body. Either of them could have been the Orichalcos's victims instead of Alister, but it probably would not have changed the end results by much. Someone else might have then died instead of Alister, but the survivors would still be in heartache. What happened to one was felt by all three.

Abruptly there was a bright glow from Raphael's deck, nearly blinding him and Valon. Then Eatos was standing before them again, in all her splendor. She smiled sadly, laying a hand gently on Raphael's shoulder before spreading her wings and soaring off the edge of the building as the two friends stared at her in confusion, then understanding. She knew how much Raphael—and Valon—cared about the young man who was falling. She would rescue him. Even if he already was dead, there was no reason why his body had to be mutilated. That would only cause more pain for his friends. And anyway, she supposed that there was a possibility, however slight, that Alister was still alive. Carefully she flew down to where Alister was still falling, catching him gently in her arms. Electricity from the Orichalcos crackled off his skin, but she paid no heed. Once she was holding him securely, she went back up to the roof, where both Raphael and Valon were intently staring at her.

Slowly Raphael let go of Valon, shakily reaching out to accept the lifeless body of his other friend. A jolt of alarm passed through him at how limp Alister was. He shut his eyes tightly, choking back the scream of frustration and shock that he felt was coming to his lips. "Thank you," he whispered brokenly to Eatos. He was most certainly grateful to her for her efforts. The thought of Alister plummeting to the harsh concrete, after everything else that had happened, had been unbearable. Raphael had so acutely understood Valon's panic in almost jumping off the roof after the redhead, but that would have accomplished nothing. Then the both of them would surely have been lost. But he had felt torn upon retrieving Valon from the edge. He had wanted so badly to save them both—but he had known that he could not. And so he had been forced to let Alister fall in order to rescue Valon. "Thank you," he said again now to his guardian, sinking to his knees in despair. Gently he touched his fingers to Alister's neck, hoping for a pulse—but in vain.

Valon dropped down beside them. "Hey, Alister!" he cried, reaching to touch the young man's shoulder. A spark of electricity leaped up, startling the boy and causing him to draw back. He knew Alister could not have survived such an outrageous, painful series of blasts, but that had not stopped him from still hoping. . . . And yet he knew it was futile. Their friend, the other member of their surrogate family, was dead. He had sacrificed himself to save the ones he loved. _You shouldn't have done this, you idiot! We could've found another way . . . somehow, we could've!_ But he knew that they likely could not have done so. Alister had done the only thing possible to save the other two, and Valon knew that Alister would not have wanted someone other than himself to die, if anyone had to.

Raphael, however, was doing more than simply hoping that Alister would still be alive. He was having a complete breakdown. He shook the body, gently at first but then harshly, his blue eyes flashing. "Wake up!" he yelled. Receiving no response, he screamed it again as he grabbed the slender man's shoulders. Raphael was frantic. It could not end this way! Alister had to revive. He only looked as though he was sleeping. And that, Raphael decided in his tortured mind, had to be the truth. He was only sleeping. . . . Or only unconscious, more likely. But he was _not_ dead.

Valon gasped at this scene, feeling the ominous, dark sensation only increase. Raphael was going mad now. The blonde man, who had been able to remain strong and firm throughout the whole, treacherous experience, could not handle any more. And as Valon watched Raphael's continuing failed attempts to bring Alister back to life, the brunette suddenly became very certain that he was going to lose both of his friends tonight. He felt a wave of sickness pass over him. Was it not horrible enough to lose one friend to death? Valon did not want to see his other friend be lost due to insanity. He shuddered, remembering how he himself had once been in such denial in the past. Now he realized how Raphael must have felt, watching him during that time.

"Raph," he said in a strangled tone, "h-he's dead. . . . We both know it, Raph. . . . You've gotta accept it. . . ." He watched as several falling raindrops splashed down upon Alister's face and hands. The redhead had not even flinched at Raphael's rough treatment. Now his head fell back, the crimson bangs fluttering away from his forehead. "We watched him die!" Valon hated seeing Alister laying so limp and lifeless—and he hated seeing Raphael unable to control his emotions and his grief.

"He's not dead," Raphael growled, even though his common sense told him otherwise. "Can't you see he's just unconscious! We have to get him awake . . . we have to get him to the infirmary. . . . He's hurt. . . ." He cradled the body on his lap, feeling it become more slack. _That's it . . . he's just hurt. . . . They can wake him up. . . ._ But he could not force his legs to allow him to rise when he attempted it. It was as if he could not even remember how to get up. His mind was a blank. _I couldn't save Sonia and Julien . . . and I couldn't save Alister, either. But no one could have saved him. . . . He was such a fool!_

"He's dead!" Valon screamed, feeling any self-control he had briefly possessed slipping away. "You can't bring him back, Raph! Heck, we'd both love to—but we can't! We just can't. . . ." He sniffled, angrily blinking back the tears. He was unsuccessful, however—they fell anyway, though the rain concealed them. "Look at him! HE'S DEAD! He killed himself! The Orichalcos killed him. . . ." And the memories of the past hours flooded his mind again until he was afraid that he, too, would be driven insane.

"SHUT UP!" Raphael screamed in response, but then regretted it when he saw Valon's taken aback expression. He did not want to be cruel towards Valon. They were both suffering. They had both lost a friend. He was not the only one in agony. Raphael took a deep breath. He would have to force himself to be the strong one again.

He looked down at Alister gloomily. The body was so limp. . . . Alister had always been an unusually lanky young man, but healthy. Now, however, he looked pale and weak. Raphael loosened his rough grip on the form, almost afraid that he would cause further damage—perhaps crushing the body in his heartbroken grasp. He knew Alister was dead. It was only that he hated to accept it. He felt as though he had failed. He should have been able to do more for him. _I should have been able to save him. . . ._ He sighed deeply, struggling to speak.

"Valon . . . I . . . I'm sorry."

The Australian looked back up at the older man. He could see that Raphael, indeed, regretted verbally lashing out. It was obvious in the depths of his blue eyes, which were usually stern and hard. Now the orbs were filled with heartache and sorrow.

"It's okay, Raph," the boy said quietly, giving a faint shrug as he scooted over closer again. "I know you didn't mean it." He gave a sad sigh. "It's gonna be hard . . . not havin' Alister around. Not that I ever really used to think much about it . . . or even that I'd care. But . . . we've been through so much since Doom ended and all. . . . I mean . . . it's like we're a family." He slammed his fist down onto the roof. "And then that Hans bloke had to come in and wreck it! He's the one who did this! He poisoned Alister!" It was hard to control his immense loathing for the misguided young man. If Hans had not broken into their house and cut Alister with the Orichalcos stone, then Alister never would have fallen to the ancient evil's power and he would not be laying dead right now. It was Hans' fault. It was all his fault, and Valon did not see how he would forgive him.

Raphael shook his head sadly. "I know," he growled. "But in the end, Hans was also corrupted by the Orichalcos. He was like all of us once were." It was confusing—at the same time he also was despising Hans, Raphael was pitying him. The blonde man understood how Hans' feelings had been twisted, just as Alister's had been, but he still did not understand why Hans had targeted Raphael personally. And if he was going to do so, Raphael felt that the boy should have concentrated on doing damage to Raphael alone and not bringing harm to his friends. But of course, Hans had determined that it would hurt Raphael more for his friends to be hurt than for anything to happen to himself. It all disgusted Raphael. Still he wished he knew why Hans had held such a grudge for the Orichalcos to warp, but that would never be made known to him now. Hans had taken his secrets with him in death.

Valon clenched a fist. "Yeah. . . . But I can't help it, Raph. . . . I still hate him. I wouldn't blame anyone for hating us 'cause of what we did during Doom. It just . . . wasn't right." He looked down at Alister's lifeless body and then to the tattered bandage on the redhead's wrist as the gauze fell away. The wound was still raw and open, having never even begun to heal since the attack. Valon shuddered.

"I wouldn't blame them, either," Raphael agreed now. "But if you hate Hans when he was under the Orichalcos's spell, then it's only logical that you'd hate Alister, too, for the same reason. Alister fell prey to the Orichalcos, too." He held the empty shell closer, still longing for the younger man to make some kind of movement. This all felt so extremely wrong! Alister was not supposed to be dead. He was not supposed to have ever gotten possessed by the Orichalcos in the first place. If only Valon's parents had not returned . . . if only Doom Reborn had not risen up . . . if only Hans had not been so angry and not allowed the Orichalcos to bring out his dark side. . . .

Valon swallowed hard, Raphael's words piercing his soul. He knew it was true. They were all victims, even Hans. In other circumstances, they could have even become friends. But the way things were now, Valon did not think it would have ever been possible, even if Hans had survived. He did not answer Raphael, instead choosing to watch a drop of blood, flecked with green, fall to the ground from Alister's wound. Strange, how such a harmless-looking injury could be the cause of so much heartache. . . .

The brunette boy blinked as a very curious thing then happened—the wound glowed as several wisps of turquoise emerged from within it. Raphael stared too, his eyes widening as the strands exploded with color in the air. Once all traces of the mist were gone, the wound began to scab over. Though it had not healed at all for the past weeks, now it seemed to be mending all at once. It had been the Orichalcos that had prevented it in the past, but it was gone now and so the injury was free to heal.

"Hey," Valon spoke then in realization, "could it do that if Alister's kicked the bucket?" He leaned forward, not waiting for Raphael's answer, and instead tried once again to hope for some sort of response from the redhead. Gently he reached out, shaking Alister lightly on the shoulder. "Come on, mate, wake up!" he pleaded. But when Alister remained still, both Valon and Raphael sighed sadly.

"He's not coming back," Raphael said darkly, still not paying much attention to the light rain that was falling around and over them. Still, it was odd about the wound. Raphael had to admit that.

Abruptly Alister stirred, his eyes fluttering open as he shifted position in Raphael's arms. "Actually . . . I'd have to differ," he remarked quietly, his voice taking on a bit of a scratching effect as he struggled to speak. The color of his irises, Raphael and Valon quickly noted, was once again a soft gray. The Orichalcos was gone. Alister was free—and alive.

Raphael stared down at him in amazement, feeling a heavy burden being lifted from his shoulders even as he could not imagine that this was truly happening. How could Alister be alive? The blasts he had taken had been so cruel and harsh. And Raphael had not been able to find any signs of life when he had looked before. Maybe, he thought, he had not checked well enough. He shuddered when he recalled how desperately he had shook Alister's body. He supposed that somewhere in his mind he had believed Alister to be dead even when he had shaken him, for if he had thought his friend was truly alive, he would know that such an act could hurt him, even seriously. "Alister?" he choked out at last, having difficulty even saying the word.

"It's me," the younger man acknowledged with a weak, triumphant smile. He had fought the Orichalcos—and had come out victorious. He shifted again in Raphael's arms, trying to get comfortable and to manage to sit up. His body was aching from the amount of energy that the evil force had channeled into him upon his surrender of the duel, but that was alright. He was certain that he would feel better soon enough. Gingerly he raised his right arm, examining the wrist and discovering that the offending slice was rapidly healing. "They didn't want me yet."

Without warning the front of his tanktop was grabbed by Valon and Alister actually let out a surprised gasp as he was yanked toward the teenage boy. "You crazy bloke!" the Australian yelled, his eyes shining with happiness. "Of course they wouldn't want you, when you've been runnin' around raising heck and scaring people!" He did his best to look angry and upset, but he soon broke into a sincere grin as he regarded his revived friend. "But . . . we want ya, old chum. We want ya!" Valon remembered few occasions when he had been as happy and joyful as he felt now. He laughed, letting go of the material as Alister regained his deadpan expression. "You're okay. . . . You're really okay!"

Alister reached up, brushing the damp bangs out of his eyes. "I'm okay," he echoed, and meant it. He had conquered the darkness that had been awakened once more in his heart. And now that the Orichalcos was gone, his friends would be safe. He would no longer have to worry that he would suddenly turn violent and strike them in a fit of fury. They would have outside enemies—namely Doom Reborn and Valon's parents—but they themselves would not be enemies with each other.

Raphael had to smile slightly as he watched his two surrogate brothers interact. He leaned back, watching and still trying to completely comprehend what was playing out in front of his eyes. It was hard to understand, most especially after watching the poor man be electrocuted, but Alister had somehow been allowed to survive. He had fought valiantly to keep those he loved safe, and he had been rewarded with his own life when it had been a certain thing that he would lose it.

"And it wasn't enough that you had to get fried," Valon was saying now, "you had to fall off the roof, too! What? Do you figure you've gotta do everything?" He continued to rant, and his friends allowed him to. Valon had a strange way of showing affection towards the others, especially Alister, and they knew that was all he was doing now. He had been heartbroken when he thought Alister was dead, and now that he could see that his friend was alive, his happiness was coming out in unorthodox ways.

Alister frowned now, in confusion. "That's right," he remarked quietly. "I fell off the roof. I remember falling, but then someone caught me just as I lost consciousness." He looked around, as if hoping to find an explanation, and then caught sight of Eatos. Raphael's guardian had been sitting quietly beside him all this time, trying to offer her support and comfort, and now she smiled kindly at Alister. Then he knew.

"You're just lucky she did," Raphael said now. He looked to Eatos, thanking her once more, and then watched as she shimmered and vanished. She remained only as long as she was needed. Now that Alister was alright, she had disappeared from sight once again. But Raphael was certain that she was always watching over him, just as his parents and siblings were.

Alister nodded slowly, but did not speak. He was undoubtedly grateful to Eatos for rescuing him, but he did not feel that words would express that well enough. As he struggled to gather enough strength to get up off Raphael's lap, the blonde man laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't try to move too fast," he warned. "It might be a good idea to have one of Kaiba's medics look at you." He knew that Alister would not be fond of the idea, but he did not wish to take any chances on the redhead continuing to suffer from any unknown injuries that he might have sustained during the Orichalcos's assault.

Alister grunted. "I'm fine," he responded typically. "Besides, how could medical doctors solve any problem caused by the Orichalcos?"

Valon glared at him, grabbing his tanktop again. "You're not fine!" he shot back. "You almost got yourself killed when you gave up that duel to us!" He bit his lip, trembling as he recalled it. "We had to watch you dyin' . . . and know that we couldn't even help you!" He gripped tighter, again pulling Alister over to him. The redhead only looked at him calmly this time, much to Valon's frustration.

Raphael shook his head, prying Valon's fingers away from the cloth. "Don't hurt him," he growled, though he knew that Valon would not intentionally do so.

"I'm not gonna," the boy retorted.

"And while you do have a point about the medical doctors probably not being able to do anything, Alister," Raphael added, looking to the redhead, "it wouldn't hurt to find out. Hopefully you're not badly injured, but after taking such a harsh electric shock, I think it would be unwise to not try to do something about it."

Alister was not pleased with the idea, but he finally agreed—mostly to please his friends. He struggled to rise and ended up nearly slipping on the roof, as it was quickly collecting more and more rainwater. Raphael and Valon got up then as well, though they were still dazed from the harsh blows dealt to them during the duel, and forced Alister to let them help him inside by draping his arms over their shoulders. Alister was reluctant to comply, but even he realized that he was weary and in need of rest. He knew that his friends were as well, but they were adamant about assisting him.

"By the way," Raphael said gruffly as they made their way to the door, "you do deserve our forgiveness." He looked over at Valon and the boy nodded firmly. "And you've gotten it." Alister smiled slightly. He knew they meant it.


	14. Epilogue: The End of the Beginning

**Notes: Wow, it's done! I love this fic so much. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed! And also, thanks to everyone from whom I got ideas via our role-plays!**

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**Epilogue**

It was amazing how much the bikers had come through over the last several weeks. It had been close to a month since these latest quandaries had began. Doom Reborn and the Paltridges were still free, and most likely nearby, watching their prey. It was an unsettling thought, but Valon had made up his mind not to worry about any of them tonight. Alister was home with them, safe and sound, and that was what he wanted to concentrate on. Right now Alister was upstairs in his room, supposedly resting, but Valon somewhat doubted that the redhead was asleep.

The doctors had determined that Alister had suffered a horrible shock to his system (the cause of which they could not quite determine) and that he should go home and rest. The friends were quite agreeable with that, and so Alister had ridden back with Raphael (as Raphael had not wanted Alister to get in a crash by riding alone or with Valon). After they had gotten Alister home, Raphael had returned to KaibaCorp to retrieve Alister's motorcycle as well. In the meantime, Valon had righted the furniture that had gotten tipped over during the earlier battle.

He leaned back at last, surveying his finished work. "That looks good enough," he said aloud, heading for the stairs.

As he went, he tried not to think about his parents, but somehow they crept into his thoughts anyway. He clutched the banister tightly, remembering how they had been torturing him and Raphael with the energies from the Orichalcos. Had that been even a small part of what Alister had gone through when it had electrocuted him? Valon shivered at the thought. He supposed that Howard and Martha had been doing it because they wanted to subdue them both into unconsciousness. Then they would have been abducted and taken to who knows where.

"_Then Valon will come with us, as we planned. Doom Reborn gets the other two."_

Valon's eyes narrowed as he recalled Martha's words. That only created more mysteries than before. Apparently, even if they were mercenaries, they were working for more than just Doom Reborn. But who might want just him alone? Or did the Paltridges themselves have some strange reason for wanting him? It did not make sense to him.

He bit his lip. He hoped that now the situation was such that they would not attempt to take him away legally through a court, but he knew that with people of their caliber, anything was possible. Now that he knew that they possessed Orichalcos stones, however, and since they had tried to abduct him and Raphael, it seemed more likely that they would focus on that approach again. Surely they did not want him for any legal reason, so why would they try extremely hard to get him in a legal way? Maybe they were only trying to scare and rile him and his friends.

He reached the top of the stairs and looked in at Alister, since the redhead had left his door open. Indeed, Alister was awake. He was laying on his side, staring off at the wall. He looked calm, yet sad. Wondering why, Valon could not resist wandering in.

"Hey, Alister," he called softly. When the redhead looked up but did not become annoyed or make some sort of flat remark, Valon was encouraged to go right over and plop down on the edge of the bed. Alister allowed this, propping himself up on one elbow. "Are you okay, mate?" Valon watched him curiously, with a bit of worry mixed in. It was not often that Alister's emotions were so blatantly obvious.

"I'm fine," Alister answered predictably. He watched Valon calmly with his gray eyes. He was happy and relieved that he had broken the control of the Orichalcos and that his friends were safe, but he was angry at himself for not being able to stop the ancient evil from taking him over in the first place. It was only natural for him to be upset. After all, he had only wanted to save his friends, but instead the Orichalcos had almost caused him to kill them. Alister clutched a handful of the quilt as he recalled the night's past events.

"You sure?" Valon asked, closing one eye as he scrutinized the older man. "You know somethin', Alister? It's not really that easy to trust your 'I'm fines.' You say that whether you're really fine or not!" It annoyed him highly at times, but he knew that he himself often did the same thing, as did Raphael. They were three very independent young men who did not particularly like being fussed over. And none of them wanted the others to worry about him, either.

Alister gave him a slight, amused smirk. "Maybe in my mind, I am fine, despite the circumstances I might be found in," he answered. "Or maybe I figure that even if I'm not fine, what good would come of saying so?" He sat up now, leaning forward on the bed. "But no, I really am fine, Valon." He imagined that he would stay frustrated with himself for a while, but his common sense told him that he had broken through the control and saved his friends, so he had no need to continue feeling upset over the incident.

"Well, you'd better be!" Valon snapped, poking him in the chest. "You've gotta stay here with us and not get all depressed and sad or something." He glared at his friend. "I mean, if you're beating yourself up over the Orichalcos thing, then you'd better stop. You couldn't help it that the bloke poisoned you. And you never stopped fighting against it! You won out too, so that says something."

Alister raised an eyebrow, admittedly surprised that Valon was basically telling him that he had done all he could, especially after the arguments they had gone through. "I was under the impression that you thought I wasn't fighting hard enough," he said at last.

Valon's shoulders slumped. "Yeah, well . . . I was frustrated," he responded. "But I should've been more patient. You were tryin' your best. And hey, you did come out on top." He grinned weakly, then sobered. "But I am sorry, Alister. . . ."

Alister nodded slowly. "It's alright, Valon," he said then. "Don't bother feeling upset about it." He paused, weighing his next statement carefully. "If you want to vent to me about your parents, you're welcome to." He knew that Valon often did like to talk, and he was letting the boy know that if he wanted to when Raphael was not around to listen, Alister was willing to listen as well.

Valon blinked at him in surprise. "Yeah?" Alister nodded again. Valon smiled a bit. "Well . . . thanks, mate."

Alister paused now, mulling over something he recalled knowing about right before losing consciousness. "You tried to save me," he said at last, watching Valon calmly. "When I fell off the edge . . . you nearly fell yourself, trying to catch me."

Valon again was amazed. "You were awake then?"

"I was awake until right after Eatos caught me," Alister answered quietly, "though I was steadily falling senseless."

Valon shuddered, pausing himself now. "Well, yeah," he burst out then, "of course I tried to save ya! You idiot, I didn't wanna see you die like that!" _I don't wanna see you die at all . . . but especially not like that. . . . No one should die like that. . . . Especially not a chum of mine._

Alister shook his head. "If Raphael hadn't been there, you probably would have died," he said flatly. "But . . . I appreciate the gesture, anyway." He laid a hand on Valon's shoulder. He was glad to know that he had people who cared.

Valon looked down, unable to think of anything to reply. "Yeah," he said finally. He relaxed. Alister had surprised him many times tonight, with his words and his actions. They were close friends, in spite of their incessant arguing.

The door opened downstairs, signaling Raphael's return. After a moment the blonde man came upstairs, checking in on both of them. Alister and Valon both looked up. "It's raining hard," Raphael said flatly, running a hand through his damp hair. He relaxed, seeing that his friends seemed well and realizing that they must have been talking. That was good for them, especially when they often had a terrible time understanding each other.

"You didn't have to retrieve my motorcycle," Alister said to him. "I could have gotten it later." He had objected when Raphael had first mentioned going out after it in the storm, but Raphael had thought it best to get it before someone could attempt to steal it, and so he had gone. Alister was glad to see that he was back safely.

Raphael grunted. "It was better to get it now," he responded, coming in and sitting down on a chair.

The three of them talked for a while, enjoying the peace of the moment—especially since it would most likely be shattered before long. After a while Valon leaped up, deciding he was hungry. He wandered out of the room and down into the kitchen with the intention of making sandwiches for himself and for his friends. Raphael watched him go, shaking his head in gentle amusement.

"Heh. . . ." Alister drew one of his knees up to his chest, laying his arm over it. "He's strange, sometimes . . . but he's a good person." Alister cared about both of the others very much, and though he did not agree with Valon a lot of the time, he knew that the brunette boy cared about him and Raphael in turn.

Raphael nodded. "He is," he agreed. He regarded Alister with a searching look, trying to determine how his friend was doing after the horrendous experience he had gone through earlier. "As are you. Are you alright?"

Alister grunted. "I'm fine," he said again, but gazed off into the distance for a moment. Then he sighed, turning to look back up at the older man. "I was panic-stricken earlier," he said seriously, "when we were dueling." He clenched a fist. "I was afraid my dark soul, under the Orichalcos's spell, would win and that you and Valon would die."

Raphael reached out, laying a hand on Alister's shoulder and squeezing gently. "You broke free, though," he said firmly.

"Yes," Alister agreed slowly, "but only with great effort. I was fighting so long, Raphael, and so hard . . . but it seemed that no matter what I did, the Orichalcos was always stronger than I was." He ran a hand through his hair. "I was just about to call out the final attack that would have been your destruction. That's how much control it had over me at that moment. Then . . . I screamed . . . and just kept screaming. I had to do something . . . anything but call out the attack. . . . I had to get control again."

"I heard you," Raphael said solemnly. "We both did." He remembered the inhuman nature of Alister's screams and felt himself cringe. The agony that the younger man had been in had been obvious.

Alister nodded. "Finally I was able to . . . but I knew that the Orichalcos could get free again, if I didn't do something. . . . I had to save you and Valon. . . ." He remembered the desperate plea for divine help that he had screamed. That plea had most certainly been answered.

"It was horrible . . . when we thought you were dead," Raphael spoke after a brief silence.

"I'm sorry," Alister replied quietly. "I did the only thing I knew that I could to save your lives." He looked down. "When I fell unconscious . . . I was fighting the Orichalcos's influence in my mind. I had to get it out of my body. After I succeeded, then I was able to wake up." It had not been as simple as that, though, and Raphael understood that, though Alister did not say so. But he could see from the weary look in Alister's eyes that it had been a vicious and taxing battle.

"And that's what's important," Raphael interjected. "You saved us . . . and yourself as well." He, also, was remembering what Alister had yelled right before he had been able to break free. His sincere, urgent prayer had granted him the help he had needed. "Don't think about the what ifs. That won't help." He spoke gruffly, as he often did, but his genuine caring for his friends always shone through.

"I know." Alister sighed, then started as Valon abruptly appeared in the doorway again. The teenage boy was holding a plate of sandwiches while he was eating another, and he blinked curiously at his friends as he entered the room.

"Where's the cat?" he asked as he set the plate down on the nightstand. "She usually comes running anytime someone opens a can of tuna." He plopped back down on the bed as Alister and Raphael each took a sandwich from off the plate.

"She was sleeping in my room," Raphael answered.

Without warning a panel in the wall began to slide open and Liu abruptly appeared, blinking sleepily and meowing a greeting. Immediately she ran over, rubbing against each biker, and then proceeded to beg for some of the tuna. Raphael was extremely amused—and baffled.

"Well," he said, shaking his head as he finally gave in and pulled a piece of tuna out of the sandwich for Liu to eat, "at least we know how she kept getting in the room." He frowned over at the panel, wondering how it had escaped their attention in the past. Had Hans perhaps done something that had jarred it open if it had been stuck for a long time? In any case, it was definitely strange.

Valon finished his sandwich and then laid back at the foot of Alister's bed, placing his hands behind his head. "Sneaky cat," he remarked. "She probably rubs against the panel or somethin' and it slides open." He could imagine that easily. Liu was a very inquisitive cat by nature and if the panel had gotten unstuck, she would have found and gotten it open during one of her roams around the rooms upstairs.

Alister gently brushed the cat away as she innocently tried to share his sandwich. He felt himself slowly relaxing. It felt right, to be here with his friends—and the Ragdoll—and to not have to worry that he would suddenly lose control of his mind and attack any of them. Everything was going back to normal, and he was grateful for it.

"My parents are probably gonna come back soon," Valon remarked bitterly.

"I'm sure of it," Raphael grunted, watching Alister feed Liu a small bit of tuna after she tried to bite into his sandwich again. "And Doom Reborn must be planning something." It still did not make sense to him on why they had been set free. The woman who had spoken to them had seemed very ruthless and cruel, since she had killed Hans without a second thought. Whatever she was plotting for them could not be good. And if it was worse than Hans' idea of taking someone to be a hostage, then what _was_ it?

"Most likely," Alister agreed. Soon they would no doubt find out what the new Doom's leader's "others ways" were. He was not especially looking forward to the opportunity.

"Ah well, we can take 'em," Valon grinned impishly, sitting up again. "If we can get rid of the Orichalcos, we can fight off whatever else they throw at us."

"Don't get too prideful," Alister warned.

"Hey, it's just a fact!" Valon retorted.

Raphael shook his head. "Don't start fighting," he pleaded in a low voice. The last thing he felt like doing right now was playing referee in one of Alister's and Valon's quarrels. "We know we'll fight whatever they throw at us, but it's true that if we get too confident in our abilities, they could overpower us." He finished eating and watched as Liu hopped onto his lap. He chuckled softly, petting her.

"Yeah, well, they won't," Valon responded. "They can't, 'cause I'm not willing to let them." He slammed his fist into his palm in determination.

"None of us are," Alister said flatly.

Liu snuggled against Raphael, purring in bliss. She did not seem concerned about the problems at hand, though of course she did not understand about them in the first place. She only understood that she had a caring family to be with, and that was what mattered to her.

* * *

The bikers each slept peacefully that night, for the most part. Though they did experience nightmares of what had happened earlier, they awoke remembering that all had ended well and that they were safe. Alister had overcome the darkness, Valon had mended his friendship with him, and Raphael was back to being calm and levelheaded. And Liu was purring quietly on Raphael's bed. Their problems were nowhere near over, but at least for this night, they could be at peace.

Miruko smiled happily as he watched Alister fall back to sleep after waking up from a disturbing dream. "It's okay, big brother," he said softly, hugging the young man gently. "Everything's okay now. You're safe, and Raphael and Valon are safe, too! I knew you'd break free." Miruko had been watching over Alister throughout the entire experience, of course, and he had given strength to his brother to help him overcome the powers of the Orichalcos. "I'm really proud you're my brother!" he declared.

Alister smiled in his sleep, sensing his brother there. "Miruko," he whispered, his tense muscles relaxing.

The child beamed, settling down onto the bed. Sonia and Julien, who were watching from the doorway, looked at each other and grinned, running to Raphael's room, where Liu saw them and continued to purr, knowing that they were friendly. And Mother Mary watched over Valon, gently covering him again with the quilt when he threw it off in his sleep. The bikers' loved ones were always watching over them, happy that Alister, Valon, and Raphael had found each other.


End file.
